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COPVRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE THREE CIRCLES 



THE HOME, THE CHURCH, AND THE 
HEAVENLY CIRCLE, 



OR 



THE HOME, THE CHURCH, AND THE 
IMMORTAL LIFE. 




BY 



REV. WM. COLBERT DETLING, 



Author of The Home and Church Circle and The Home 
Dedicatory Service. 



CLEVELAND, OHIO, 
April, 1904. 



^^li 



Two C-opiKS Rec«<ved 

AUG 17 1904 

\ OooyrJsrhttniJv 

di-ASS C^'XXc No. 
COPY B 



Copyright, April, 1904. 
All Rights Reserved. 



^ 



-To 

The Welfare 

of 

The Home and The Church 

as 

Training Schools for the Kingdom of 

God, on Earth and in Heaven, 

This Volume Is Dedicated. 



CONTENTS. 



THE HOME CIRCLE. 

I. The Importance of The Home - - 9 

II. The Father in Tne Home - - - 16 

III. The Mother in The Home - - - 20 

IV. The Children in the Home - - - - 60 
V. The Altar in the Home - - - - 66 

VI. The Home in Social and Civic Life - 74 

VII. The Home in the Church and Heaven - 81^- 



THE CHURCH CIRCLE. 

I. The Importance of the Church - - 92- 

II. The Membership of the Church - - - 97 

III. The Organization of the Church - - 102 

IV. The Benevolence of the Church - 106 

V. The Finances of the Church - - - 114 

VI. The Church in Social and Civic Life - 122 

VII. The Church in The World and in Heaven 138-> 



THE HEAVENLY CIRCLE, 

or 
THE IMMORTAL LIFE. 

1. Importance of Immortality - - - 141 
II. Man's Nature Demanding Immortality - 147 
III. The Soul's Supremacy Demanding Immor- 
tality 153 

IV. The Justice of God Demanding Immortal- 

tality 159 

V. Preparation for Immortality - - 167 

VI. The Beginning of Immortality - - 176 

VII. The Glory of Immortality - - - 184 

Constitution of The Home and Church Circle and 

The Home Dedicatory Service. 



AN APPRECIATION. 

By Rev. C. W. Carroll, D. D., 

[Pastor Hough Ave. Congregational Church, 
Cleveland, Ohio.] 

No one will question that the author has 
chosen to write concerning the three institu- 
tions which are most sacred to the human 
heart. Nor can it be denied that the order 
in which he names these institutions is the nor- 
mal order of progress toward life eternal. 
And it must be apparent to all observers that 
there is particular need in our day that we 
safeguard the home circle and the church cir- 
cle if we would have our children enter the 
heavenly circle. The broken and divided home 
life incident to a time of great business 
prosperity, and emphasized by the demands 
of the modern city, have greatly interfered 
with that religious home life which was 
characteristic of America one hundred years 
ago. Different schools, different classes in 
the Sunday-school, different social circles, 
different business employments, keep the 
members of the family much separated 
from each other. Time seems to be wanting 



for religious instruction by the parents, and 
even the family altar has in many cases been 
neglected or avowedly overturned. It is very 
easy to foresee the disaster which this must 
bring to the home. It is high time that some- 
body led a movement for the restoration of re- 
ligious life in the home. The author's idea 
of consecrating a new home, or a home in 
which religion has been neglected seems to me 
an admirable one. 

It cannot be expected that such a movement 
will succeed without the hearty co-operation 
and leadership of the church. The church 
could not be to better business than seeking to 
help parents to gather their children about the 
altar and to bring them all into an open and 
avowed consecration to Christ. It is the pur- 
pose of the author in this book to remind pas- 
tors and church officers of their duty and priv- 
ilege in this respect. Such a suggestion ought 
to receive a cordial welcome from those who 
are seeking to build up a Kingdom of the 
Christ in our land. 

It has not been my privilege to read with 
care this book; but it is my privilege to com- 
mend heartily the purpose with which the au- 
thor has put it forth, trusting that it may ac- 
complish that for which it is sent. 



PREFACE. 

Little children in their early playtime form 
themselves into friendly little circlets and cir- 
cles; young men and maidens in the image 
and likeness of God, form a most mutual, 
mythical and beautiful covenant, the one with 
the other, and seal that covenant, in a pure 
circlet of gold — The Wedding Ring. 

The anointed King comes forth to have his 
head encircled in a Crown and Diadem, flash- 
ing with precious jewels, as a symbol and em- 
blem of his Kingly and Royal Power. 

When we with the Psalmist, " survey Thy 
Heavens, the Moon and the Stars,'' and the 
Universe of Worlds, we behold them all en- 
throned in circles. 

It is insisted, by many of the artistic and 
aesthetic, that all things of beauty and perfec- 
tion are formed in curves and circles. How- 
ever this may be, I desire, in the pages of this 
book, to call attention to three of the most im- 
portant and wonderful circles, in the consid- 
eration of man:— THE HOME, THE 
CHURCH, AND THE HEAVENLY CIR- 
CLE. 

May He who sits enthroned in Majesty, 
Glory and Power, guide us in the home and 
the church until we are all encircled in the halo 
of His Presence in our home in Heaven. — The 
Author. 



THE HOME CIRCLE. 

CHAPTER I. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE HOME. 
"Be It Ever So Humble There Is No Place Like Home." 

Under overhanging boughs robed in na- 
ture's green, and filled with the songsters of 
the air, trilling and singing their tuneful carols 
and anthems, flows a placid river; upon its 
surface, I see two tilting little boats, each con- 
taining a family of parents and children. 

Down the beautiful river they move; in 
either boat may be seen the father bending to 
the oars and the mother holding the helm, and 
looking skyward beholds, dimly outlined in 
the clouds, a beautiful city of palaces and man- 
sions, and above all a shining angel, beckon- 
ing them all onward toward the Holy City. 

Onward these vessels, with their freight of 
human souls, move down the stream; quite 
near and neighborly for a time, until a point 
of land reaches out into the water, dividing it 
into rivers, right and left, that shall flow on 
separately, never to meet or flow together 
again. 



10 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

The Father in one of the boats is still plying 
the oars and the Mother with her eyes still on 
the beckoning angel and the Holy City, holding 
the helm, turns the prow of the little craft, 
toward the river on the right and onward down 
the beautiful river of life they go, ever nearing 
the faithful angel, and the lovely Mansions in 
their home in Heaven, when life's voyage is 
o'er. 

Alas ! For the other boat, where the Father 
'has carelessly dropped the oars and the Mother 
lias neglected the helm and all have lost their 
^iew of the Angel and The Holy City in the 
clouds ; into the river on the left their life boat 
has drifted; down the terrible stream they 
move, more concerned for the things along the 
shore than for the things eternal in the City 
of God; helplessly, hopelessly downward the 
stream they drift, and as they onward go, there 
is seen the darkening clouds, the flashing light- 
ning; their ears are deafened by the rolling 
thunders, and the roaring awful precipice and 
rapids over which rushes the river with the 
boat and its freight of human souls into an 
eternal abyss of the lost. 

May we not, in this, see a picture and type of 
an institution of God on Earth, — the home ; 
which is watched over and ever beckoned on- 
ward to by the angels of the Eternal Father, 
until the home on Earth is lost in the better and 
more glorious one in Heaven ? 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 11 

HOME. 

Home: What an entrancing, magnetic 
word ; a word of power and one in which there 
is a world of meaning; a word sO' tuneful and 
accordant, that the harpstrings of human hearts 
are vibrant in sweetest melodies when touched 
by this influence, sO' harmonious and enchant- 
ing. 

Yes, a word so charming and beautiful, in 
its association with this, God's first and greatest 
institution on Earth, for the bringing into the 
world in the hearts of men, a song so sweet 
and responsive to his will, that the angels of 
Heaven will some day catch up the sweet re- 
frain of the redeemed, and thus echO' back their 
part in the great antiphonal, until Earth shall 
be lost in Heaven. 

Possibly a deeper and more responsive chord 
was never touched in the human heart, than 
when the immortalized Payne, in hours of dis- 
tress, and soul longing for this most blessed 
of all places on earth, gave to the world the 
blissful words, in the song " Home, Sweet 
Home," — a song which the earth caught up 
and sang, and will sing on while the heart has 
its passions, and as long as the soul longs for 
the home Eternal. 

HOME, SWEET HOME. 
'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may 

roam. 
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home ! 



12 THE THEEE CIRCLES. 

A charm from the skies seems to follow us 

there, 
Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met 
with elsewhere. 

Home, home ! Sweet, sweet home ! 

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like 
home ! 
An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain ; 
O, give me my lowly thatched cottage again! 
The birds singing gaily, that come at my call : 
Give me these, and the peace of my mind 
dearer than all. 

Home, home ! Sweet, sweet home ! 

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like 
home! 

— John Howard Payne. 

Show me a loving husband, a worthy 
wife, good children, and no pair of horses ever 
flew along the road could take me in a year 
where I could see a more pleasing sight : home 
is the grandest of all institutions. Talk about 
Parliament! Give me a quiet little parlor. 
Boast about voting on the Reform bill if you 
like. But I go in for weeding the little garden 
and teaching the children their hymns. Fran- 
chise may be a good thing, but I should much 
rather get a freehold of my cottage, if I could 
find the money to buy it. Magna Charta I 
don't know much about, but if it means a quiet 
home for everybody, three cheers for it. — 
Spurgeon. 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 13 

If there is a preacher who has lost his audi- 
ence, it is only necessary for him to announce 
as his theme the home and he will win it back 
again. — Ira Landrith. 

" Take this child and nurse it for me," is 
God's command concerning every little soul put 
into life. How few parents either hear, be- 
lieve or obey it, He knows. — Dinah M. Craik. 

Fundamentally the questions of love and 
confidence between parents and children under- 
lie the whole social system — not only underlie, 
but are. Our civic life, in the long run, will 
rise or sink as the average family is a success 
or failure. — Theodore Roosevelt. 

HOME INFLUENCE. 

A candle that won't shine in one room is 
very unlikely to shine in another. If you do 
not shine at home, if your mother and father, 
your sister and brother, if the very cat and 
dog in the house are not better and happier for 
your being a Christian, it is a question whether 
you really are one. — /. Hudson Taylor. 

Yet, Alas ! Since sin has entered this most 
blessed institution of God, the songs that come 
forth from it are not always harmonious and 
tuneful; often they come in evidence of the 
greatest discord, and the most fearful tragedies. 
Out of it may come weal or woe, joy or sorrow, 
calm or storm, sacrifice or selfishness. In it 
may be felicities and joys so sacred and sweet 
that a curious and meddling world would not 



14 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

dare to look in upon; in it may be horrors so 
dreadful and awful that the world would not 
attempt to chronicle it, to be read of man. 

Is it not important that this institution 
which must either bless and brighten the world, 
or curse and blight it, have our first and most 
serious attention and concern ? 

Ah ! If the motto in many homes, " God 
Bless Our Home," is to be more than mere pen 
and ink lettering on paper, or paint of an art- 
ist's brush on canvas, we should give heed to 
its importance in more marked consideration 
than is being done, in these rushing commer- 
cial and materialistic days in which we live. 
Again: In order that this institution, or- 
dained of God for such blessed fruitfulness, 
shall bring forth results commensurate with 
its intended significance, not only as to this 
present world and life, but also for the more 
important — the future — it becomes necessary 
that we interest ourselves more in it than we 
have seemed to in the past. Once more: 
Since the whole of a thing is always the sum of 
its factors, it follows then that when the fac- 
tors are not right the sum of those factors must 
of necessity be wrong; hence the individuals, 
who are the factors of the home, must be right 
or the sum total of that home cannot be right. 

If the home is to be more than a mere build- 
ing, more than a boarding house; if society, 
the city, the State, the Church, and Heaven 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 15 

are to be blessed of this glorious institution, it 
behooves every thoughtful and earnest soul to 
consider the important factors that go to make 
up a blessed and fruitful home, as suggested in 
the following pages. 



16 THE THREE CIRCLES. 



CHAPTER 11. 

THE FATHER IN THE HOME. 

Since we have concluded from the foregoing' 
chapter that the home is of such vast power 
and significance, and also that the whole of a 
problem or of an institution is the sum total 
in kind and quantity of its factors or parts, it 
follows then, that in order that its influence and 
power may be in proportion to the factors that 
compose it, it is necessary for this problem, 
like others, to have its prime factor. In this 
case it is the father in the home. 

In considering the home as a realm or king- 
dom of power and influence, we must demand 
a king of real kingly and royal character for so 
important a throne. In one sense this is more 
important in the home than in the real king- 
dom, for the latter might abdicate or be de- 
throned, while the former occupies the throne 
of father through life, whether worthily or not. 

As it is understood that before a king can 
wisely rule and direct his subjects, he must first 
have learned to govern and control himself, so 
must it be with him who presumes to reign on 
the throne of home, since the subjects as a 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 17 

whole seldom rise above their king in life and 
conduct, the principle holds true here in the 
home ; the father cannot reasonably expect that 
his subjects, the children in the home, will rise 
above the conduct of their father. 

There is a time in the lives of most children 
when they have implicit faith and confidence in 
their father, believing that whatever he says 
or does is right. One daring to dispute the 
father or to condemn him for his position is 
likely to incur the displeasure and ill will of the 
children of that father. Ask the child of the 
farmer, lawyer, physician, banker, teacher, 
artist, mechanic, who is the best in these re- 
spective vocations, and the answer will almost 
invariably be, " My father." Ah ! fathers of 
sons, there is a period in the life of your boy 
when he will think it is a grand thing to be able 
to do what he sees and hears you do ; when he, 
like you, is able to whistle, chew tobacco, spit, 
swagger, and swear; a time when he sees you 
doing a thing that may be the means of his 
downfall in life, in your beating a conductor 
out of a fare ; when he hears you telling train- 
men that he is under twelve when he is four- 
teen ; when he hears you say that it is all right 
to beat a man who has swindled you ; a time, 
alas ! when he thinks it the proper thing to 
make fun of the Church, stay at home on Sun- 
day, and read the " Sunday " paper, or to um- 
pire a ball game for men and boys, who have 



18 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

also lost regard for the Sabbath day. Oh^ 
what a sad day for children, when they learn 
that their father is not good and true; that he 
does not have the respect of his fellow men. 
Yes, my heart bleeds for children who have 
to apologize for the conduct of their father or 
suffer in awful silence over his disgrace. 
Fathers, if you have been guilty before your 
sons in deceptions, schemes, and conduct as 
above mentioned, should you be surprised if 
your sons find their way to the almshouse, 
workhouse, or prison, in following your foot- 
steps? Remember a bad man cannot be a 
good father and husband. (If you expect the 
present ratio of three women to one man in the 
Church service, the prayer-meeting and other 
religious services, and means of grace, to be 
changed, will you not do your part to reform 
along these lines?) Again, if the father de- 
sires a happy home, his influence must be on 
the side of conduct that will produce such re- 
sults; he must be a loyal patron of morals, 
religion, ethics, virtue and all that belongs to a 
true and noble life; he must be more concerned 
in the souls of his children than he is in stocks, 
bonds, houses, lands, commerce, politics, tariffs, 
etc. Neglect along these lines may bring as 
bitter a wail as it did from King David in 
his awful grief over his erring son Absalom, 
when he cried out in bitter agony : " Oh, Ab- 
salom, my son, Absalom, would God I had died 




THE BEST OF FRIENDS. 

FATHER AND DAUGHTER. 

I admire the love of a daughter for her 
mother, but it is so common, so natural, 
that I am always ready to take it for 
granted; but the love of a daughter for a 
father! What a sight for the gods it is! 
Look at that girl on her father's knees, 
with her arms around his neck, fondling 
him, petting him, patting his face, curl- 
ing his moustache, pulling his nose. Look 
at them in the street, arm in arm, like old 
"pals." His weight is not one ounce. In 
that girl's company he is a man of twenty- 
five, not a year older. Watch them flatten 
their noses against the shop windows, look- 
ing at all the pretty thmgs inside. —Max 
O'Rell. 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 19 

for thee." 

A father's example. 
Often, but not too often, do we hear of the 
abiding influence of a mother's life and ex- 
ample in the lives of the boys who go from 
home into the busy world, but too seldom is the 
inestimable value of the father's influence ex- 
tolled. With inexpressible gratitude for all 
that mother represents, the father is the boy's 
ideal of a man, and stands as the head of the 
household and the unit of society. A noble 
father, upright, honorable, conscientious in all 
the relations of life toward wife and mother 
and children in the home, in business and so- 
cial engagements, of unswerving integrity, just 
and self-controlled, honored in all the com- 
munity in which he dwells, is a silent, but irre- 
sistible power in deciding the character of his 
sons. Never can they forget that they are the 
children of such a father. While the love of 
mother will keep them tender, the example of 
father will make them noble. — Charles C, 
Earle. 



20 THE THREE CIRCLES. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE MOTHER IN THE HOME. 

When the throne of a nation has upon it a 
kingly king and a queenly queen, it has more 
than double security, for when a king has a 
power behind his throne in a noble and queenly 
wife (see p. 21), he has that which is worth 
more than a cabinet, a parliament, or a stand- 
ing army. As a weak and unkingly king has 
often acquitted himself fairly well and has been 
able, often to direct the affairs of the nation 
to a degree of success, when directed by the 
power of a noble woman behind the throne; 
so in the home the influence and power is often 
due to the wife and mother. How happy the 
situation and prospect when a noble father and 
a true mother occupy jointly the throne of the 
home! How naturally we look for the most 
blessed results in the children ! 

Even though the father be ever so kingly 
and noble, the influence of the mother is often 
so much more of value to the sons and daugh- 
ters than the father ; she is not only " the power 
behind the throne " in the wise direction of the 
kingdom of the home, but her influence is en- 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 21 

throned in the very hearts of her children for 
good or ill, in greater degree than is that of the 
father. 

The mother's empire is great. She, if a 
true mother in her home, is the most powerfully 
enthroned of earth, and even unaided may suc- 
cessfully manage her little kingdom. Mothers : 
The Church and nation are looking to you for 
the perpetuation of their virtue and permanence 
through the careful training of your sons and 
daughters. Most great men have had great 
mothers, or grandmothers, at least. Usually the 
child is with the mother more than with any one 
else on earth, and she thus moulds and influ- 
ences the life of her child more than any other, 
both because of her special power as mother 
and of a long continued association with her 
children. The mother should be the child's 
first, most important, and influential teacher, 
however consecrated and devoted the child's 
later teacher in the Church or Sabbath School 
may he. Mothers, be loving companions with 
your children ; let them confide in you ; for they 
will confide in some one. Ah, when they are 
young, be gentle, tender and loving. Never 
put them to bed without having heard their 
prayers and do not neglect the good-night kiss. 

SEND THEM TO BED WITH A KISS. 

"Oh mothers, so weary, discouraged, 

Worn out with the cares of the day. 
You often grow cross and impatient, 

Complain of the noise and the play ; 
For the day brings so many vexations. 

So many things going amiss ; 



^2 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

But, mothers, whatever may rex yon, 
Send the children to bed with a kiss t 

"The dear little feet wander often, 

Perhaps, from the pathway of right, 
The dear little hands find new mischief 

To try you from morning to night ; 
But think of the desolate mothers 

Who'd give all the world for your bliss, 
And, as thanks for your infinite blessings. 

Send the children to b»d with a kiss I 

"For some day their noise will not vex you. 

The silence will hurt you far more : 
You will long for the sweet children s voices. 

For a sweet, childish face at the door ; 
And to press a child's face to your bosom, 

You'd give all the world for just this ; 
For the comfort 'twill bring you in sorrow. 

Send the children to bed with a kiss 1" 

Let me quote here from the " Christian En- 
deavor World," by kind permission, some in- 
teresting definitions of " Mother," viz. : 
What is mother ? A gift of priceless worth ; 
A breath of God's love sent down unto earth. 

Mother : our name for the angel of love sent 
by God to the household to guide its members 
heavenward. 

Mother : queen of the home, — the center of 
an influence enduring throughout all time, 
whose circumference is bounded only by eter- 
nity. 

Mother is the one who bears, 

The one who soothes, and also shares,- 

All our troubles and our cares. 

Mother : the soul of the home ; the one who 
understands better than any one else how God 
feels toward us, His weak and wa)rward chil- 
dren. 

Mother is life's key of gold, that unlocks the 
inner temple, where life's finest essence eludes 
everything else. 




?W\%'" ^ , 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 23 

Mother : 

Our babyhood's support. 

Tender childhood's comforter, 

Hilarious youth's comrade. 

Earnest manhood and womanhood's best friend, 

Resolute, sacrificing, sympathetic, loving. 

A true mother is the embodiment of Prov. 
37:10-31, a link between our earthly and our 
heavenly homes. 

Mother is the one who " doesn't care for 
any " when there is not enough pie to go 
around. 

" Mother is the personification of faith, hope, 
and charity ; faith in us, hope for us, and char- 
ity for our faults." 

" Husband's dearest companion and help- 
meet, son's wisest counsellor, daughter's best 
confidante, God's best gift to the home : a good 
mother." 

" Mother is the magnet of the home, which 
attracts the hearts to herself, and holds them.'* 

Mother: a guardian angel given us by 
God, to guide our footsteps in the way to 
heaven." 

" Mother means the babe's comforter, the 
child's guardian, the boy's best friend, the girl's 
chief confidante, and humanity's controller." 

" Mother : the sweetest, most beautiful wo- 
man in the world ; the one we love best, and yet 
worry most." 

" Mother : the keystone which cements the 
family arch." 



24 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

MY mother's face. 

By Amos R. Wells. 

How shall I know thee, dear one who hast died? 
Nay, mother who art living, glorified ! 
HoY\7, with thy wrinkles peace dissolved away? 
Thy hair, the brown returned upon the gray! 
The form, with girlish vigor newly fleet. 
Hasting in loveliness thy child to meet? 

Ah, I shall know thee, mother ! by thy grace, 
The very youth, new blossomed m thy face ! 
For each familiar furrow worn by care 
Death has transformed a line of beauty there ! 
All time's defacement swiftly shall be known, 
Each to its seperate fairness having grown ! 

Such was thy face on earth, O mother dear. 

The hair grown white, the features shadowed here. 

Far better shall I know thee, now the Sun, 

Reversing, ail the darkness has undone ; 

And, Oh, the lovelier thy face shall be. 

The raore familiar will it seem to me ! 

Among my magazine clippings I find this 
suggestive article : 

SHE REIGNED WHERE SHE WAS QUEEN. 

I knew a beautiful and wealthy woman who 
as a girl had been a reigning belle. Her old 
friends crowded about her, but she had no time 
for dancing or picnic. She literally never lost 
sight of her children. She nursed the baby 
and bathed it herself. She inspected every 
meal the older children ate, and talked and 
played with them constantly. Her friends pro- 
tested. " You are degenerating into a mere 
nursemaid! You give yourself no chance to 
grow," they said. " God just now has given 
me nursing to do," she said quietly, " and I 
can grow in that line." I lost sight of her for 
three years. Then her husband removed to the 
country where I lived. Her children were at 
school, but she still kept close to them. She 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 25 

took drawing lessons with Mary, studied 
mathematics with Joe, and taught Jim history, 
coloring the dull dates with vivid stories of bat- 
tles and heroes. Her mother-eye was on each 
child, and when a teacher drove one of them 
too hard, the child was promptly brought home 
and turned loose on the farm for a few months. 
Her friends protested that she took no part in 
the modern affairs of women. She belonged to 
no club. " I must be about my own business,'' 
she said. Her husband was a large cattle 
grower. She knew his affairs to the least de- 
tail. When Joe was ordained a minister she 
threw herself into his parish work. When 
Jim became a magazine editor she plunged into 
modern novels and poetry, and read scores of 
manuscripts for him. She is still living, still 
keeping step with her boys and husband. They 
carry all their worries to her; they consult her 
in all their plans. Her life has broadened in 
their lives. Her friends still complain that she 
does no public work. But " her children rise 
up and call her blessed." 

Here also follows something as suggestive in 
its way as the above. If some erring mother 
sees herself in this it may be well. 

FOR " EUCHRE " MOTHERS. 

A certain mother in one of our small cities 
was very fond of playing " progressive euchre." 
One evening she received a fine silver cup for 
being the most successful player in a group 



26 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

of her society friends. She was much de- 
lighted with her success, and, on showing it to 
her family the next morning, her son, in his 
early " teens," said, " Huh ! I can beat that, for 
I made ten dollars at the pool table last night.' ^ 
Immediately the eyes of the mother were 
opened in more senses than one, for, in the first 
place, she had no idea that her son had thus 
been spending his time, and, in the next place, 
partners in sin, how could she condemn him? 
It taught her a lesson once for all. 

The mother's influence is so instilled in the 
lives of her children that it goes on in their 
lives, in the Church, society and State, and in 
fact on and on through earth. Heaven, and 
eternity. Well did Lincoln say, " All that I 
am or hope to be, I owe to my mother." Not 
only the great theologian and preacher, Augus- 
tine, but a host of others, owe their conversion 
to the influence of a sainted mother. . 

In Scripture, as well as in secular writings, 
we learn of the wonderful power the mothers 
have had in their influence over their children 
for good or ill (see p. 26) ; how different was 
the influence of the mothers of Moses and Sam- 
uel in shaping the lives of their noted and noble 
sons from that of the mothers of Ahab and 
Jezebel; the former so great and the latter so 
direful and awful. 

It is the mother, more than any one else, who 
shall decide, whether her child, like the acorn^ 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 27 

shall develop into a straight, symmetrical and 
noble tree of life, or into a crooked, unsym- 
metrical and ignoble one. She it is who usu- 
ally bends the twig in the way it is to grow, 
and as we have contemplated and considered 
the results of a father's precepts and example 
for good or ill in the lives of his children, we 
almost tremble at the thought of the responsi- 
bility of the mother for the welfare of her chil- 
dren in this world and the greater beyond. 

Oh, mother ! do you realize your potent influ- 
ence over your children for good or ill? Do 
you realize that if you do not clasp the little 
hand in prayer and try to lead them to a knowl- 
edge of the Saviour, it will not likely be done 
at all? 

Do you realize that you hold the helm, and 
can turn the prow of the little vessel of life to 
or from God? Alas! if you do not. Yes, 
every mother should be her own first Sunday 
School teacher, ordinarily, and any mother 
permitting her child to be first taught of Christ 
and holy things by the Sunday School teacher 
ought to realize that she has woefully neg- 
lected the first and most essential matter in the 
training of children. 

Yes, four years of careful training and dis- 
cipline by a devoted Christian mother is worth 
more than a four years' course in the best col- 
lege in the land. It is also true that the 
mother's prayers are sure to follow the child 



28 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

through all the v/orld or wherever it may go; 
it is she who will pray on, hope on, and trust, 
when father and all others have given an erring 
child up as lost. It is the mother whO' lies 
awake at night in prayer and tears when all 
others are asleep; it is her hair that first turns 
gray from grief for a libertine son or a harlot 
daughter; yes, it is the mother who suffers in 
giving birth to the child; and while others 
suffer death but once, some mothers suffer a 
hundred deaths for reckless and wayward chil- 
dren; her fond heart throbs for her children 
as ceaselessly as does the great sea roll upon 
the shore. 

The idea of responsibility of a mother for 
her children is finely shown in the follovvang: 
One mother said to another, " You are so 
gifted and talented, I have often wondered why 
you have never written a book." " Indeed," 
replied the other, '' I am now busy writing two ; 
one I have been at five, and the other, ten 
years," said the first. " Pray tell me, what 
wonderful books are they? " and the other re- 
plying, said, '' It doth not yet appear what they 
shall be." " Oh," cried the first, " I see now, 
you mean your two children." " Yes," finally 
declared the other, " I consider them of more 
importance than all the books I could vv^rite." 

What a contrast this to the conduct of some 
mothers, who are so much interested in the 
world, its shallow joys, its whims, and foibles, 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 29 

that their children are left to the care of nurses, ' 
while they themselves fritter away the mo- 
ments that ought to be given to the training of 
the priceless souls of their children. The 
mother who spends her time in that ever ques- 
tionable and uncertain institution called " fash- 
ionable society/' and allows her child to be 
cared for by the nurse, or who lavishes emo- 
tions and fond care upon a poodle dog; or 
possibly at a dog or horse show, goes into 
ecstasies over the conduct and freaks of ani- 
mals there exhibited, while a collection of chil- 
dren from a Sunday School or an orphan asy- 
lum would hardly attract her passing notice, 
ought to be horrified and ought to go into 
mourning for her conduct and not permit her 
children to know that she is their mother until 
she has repented and promised to be a mother 
worthy the name. Many men's greatness is 
their mother's greatness, and the reason of the 
lack of some men's success in life, especially in 
morals, is due to a lack of moral training by the 
mothers. Is it any wonder that the great 
brained Byron failed so signally here, when 
among many other failures of the moth- 
er in the training of her gifted son, 
she exclaimed to him one day when he 
desired an answer to some c[uestion, ''' Get 
out of here and away from me, you miser- 
able lame brat." Yes, if there is a crucial 
period and time when the father should be espe- 



30 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

cially careful in his life conduct and training of 
his child, there is still more need of care from 
the mother in these special times with her chil- 
dren. If, as we have said, it is an awful thing 
for a child to have to apologize for the conduct 
of its father or suffer in silence, how much 
more terrible is it for the child to have to do so 
for a mother. Oh, mothers, when you are 
privileged to give birth to a child, you are also 
given a responsibility that is great. Here is 
presented to you by God a priceless treasure 
and jewel of a soul to be trained for Him, a 
responsibility that no one else could assume as 
a mother. There certainly will come these cru- 
cial moments and tests in the life of the child 
when it may be directed to Him for whom it 
was born, and if so directed and trained, it 
should go right on as a Christian child toward 
a mature Christlike life, and need never have 
the special experience of conversion, from sin 
and love of the world, it never having known 
anything but the love of Jesus its Saviour. 

It is the mother's privilege and duty to 
mould the character and fix the destiny of her 
child. This nation needs nothing so much as 
more good mothers. Mothers ! When you of 
this generation have Christianized your chil- 
dren, you have evangelized the world in the 
next generation. Some one has well said: 
" The mother in her office, holds the key of the 
soul; 



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THE THREE CIRCLES. 31 

And she it is who stamps the coin of character, 
And makes the being who would be a savage, 
But for her gentle care, a Christian." 

A Roman orator wisely said, " The empire 
of Rome is at the fireside." Yes, mothers, 
earthly kings and queens are holding scepters 
of power over thrones and kingdoms ; you are 
holding scepters, of greater power and im- 
portance, over the throne and kingdom of your 
homes. The influence of home and mother is 
worldwide. Says one, " A son never gets 
away from the influence of his mother. 
Whether he stands upon the surf-beaten coast 
of the Atlantic, or roams over Western wilds, 
every dash of the waves or whisper of the 
breeze, will say, * home, sweet home.' Sit him 
down amid the glaciers of the North, and even 
there, thoughts of home, too warm to be chilled 
by eternal frosts, will float in upon him; let 
him roam through the green waving grasses 
and over sunny slopes of the South, and in the 
smile of soft skies and in the kiss of the balmy 
breeze, home will live again.*' 

CHRISTIAN MOTHERHOOD. 

Well has it been said, " They who rock the 
cradle rule the world." It is certainly the fact 
that the training, nurture and discipline re- 
ceived in infancy and childhood is manifest in 
all after life. This distinctive influence goes 
forth in pulpit, forum, and every department 
of life. Few, indeed, are the great men who 



32 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

forget the example set for them in the old home 
by mother, and almost every worthy act of 
their lives is a reproduction in principle of 
truths inculcated in them by their mother. 

"What manner of child shall this be?" 
And the mother is her own answer to the ques- 
tion in determining what kind of a mother she 
will be. 

What a stupendous responsibility rests upon 
a mother who has an immortal soul entrusted 
to her care, to train for eternity — a soul com- 
ing into periods and tests as to right and 
wrong. When rightly directed at this pivotal 
time it shall be eternal gain, and wrongly 
directed or possibly a neglect to train or direct 
at all, an eternal loss. 

(Seep. 30.) 

WHAT A CHILD MAY BECOME. 

A poor doctor with a large family lay dying, 
and at the time the mother gave birth to 
an undersized, puny, scrawny child, and many 
said it would be a blessing if it would die, but 
it would not and did not, and finally became the 
noted John Todd, author of the Students' Man- 
ual, and other rather important works, and it is 
said that Bishop Simpson was one of the most 
unpromising babes and even as a child seemed 
to need many apologies for his form and ap- 
pearance. 

Ah, it is well that we reverence the mother 
Mary most of all (see p. 26). If one great re- 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 33 

ligious body seems to carry its adoration too 
far, may it not be the fact that another great 
body does not carry its adoration and rever- 
ence far enough. What lover of Jesus cannot 
reverence and love His pure and sainted 
mother? Ah, she is, indeed, "blessed among 



women 



The Church of God needs nothing so much 
to-day as Christian mothers. How can a 
mother hold in her arms the innocent babe and 
not feel the Holy Christ in her heart pleading 
with her to train the child for Him. 

Mothers, commit yourselves and your chil- 
dren to Jesus, and make the most possible out 
of your lives and those intrusted to your care. 

HOME AND ITS QUEEN. 

There is probably not an unperverted man 
or woman living who' does not feel that the 
sweetest consolations and best rewards of life 
are found in the loves and delights of home. 
There are a few who dO' not feel themselves in- 
debted to the influences that clustered around 
their cradles for whatever good there may be 
in their characters and condition. Home, 
based upon Christian marriage, is so evident 
an institution of God that a man must become 
profane before he can deny it. Wherever it is 
pure and true to the Christian idea, there lives 
an institution conservative of all the nobler 
instincts of society. 

Of this realm, woman is the queen. It takes 



34 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

the cue and line from her. If she is in the 
best sense womanly — if she is true and tender, 
loving and heroic, patient and self-devoted, she 
consciously and unconsciously organizes and 
puts in operation a set of influences that do 
more to mould the destiny of a nation than any 
man, uncrowned by power of eloquence, can 
possibly effect. 

The men of the nation are what mothers 
make them, as a rule ; and the voice that those 
men speak in the expression of power, is the 
voice of the woman who bore and bred them. 
There can be no substitute for this. There is 
no other possible way in which women of the 
nation can organize their influence and power 
that will tell so beneficially upon society and 
the State. — Scrihner's Monthly, 

Mothers, you might as well look for a beauti- 
ful garden of vegetables and flowers, after 
planting seeds in soil among weeds and not 
cultivating them, as to expect that children will 
develop into good men and women without 
cultivation, nurture and training in the home. 
Almost as well expect barbarians and savages 
to develop themselves into lawyers, physicians, 
artists, scientists, philosophers, and ministers 
of the Gospel, as expect that children in civi- 
lized homes will naturally cultivate themselves 
into Christian life. The child should be the 
supremest object of care under the sun; its 
love more priceless than any or all jewels. 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 35 

Christ came from Heaven to earth that He 
might organize a kingdom of such. Home is 
God's first school for the child and the mother 
the child's first teacher and the Word of God 
the text-book. How much easier it is to form 
an unformed child's mind into a well-formed 
one than to try to reform a deformed one. 
What an object lesson one great denomination 
has been to us along this line. Parents, the 
welfare of the Church and the nation of the 
next generation depends upon your children's 
training in this. Bad homes are prisons and 
reformatory suppliers. Parents, you should 
not permit your children to be born in non- or 
unchristian homes. If you do, make haste the 
first possible moment thereafter to give your- 
selves to Christ and ask Him to assist you to 
bring your child to Him, in your training and 
nurture of it; if you permit your child to grow 
up in a Godless home you degrade it, and you 
will doubtless have to answer for your sin in 
judgment. Think of it, most persons who are 
Christians to-day are Christians because of 
Christian parentage and training; and most of 
those who are not have failed because of Christ- 
less homes in which they were brought up. 
Ah, heaven is looking down upon the home and 
the little child and is asking you to train it for 
Christ, and give it back to Him a Christian; 
it is the most precious jewel in the world; neg- 
lect your diamonds, but not the jewel of the 



36 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

child's soul. Let me quote here a home-lov- 
ing President of the United States — this in 
harmony with most of his predecessors in this 
great office : 

HOME AND CHURCH TRAINING. 

" I plead not merely for training of the mind, 
but for the moral and spiritual training of the 
home and the Church ; the moral and spiritual 
training that have always been found in this 
book, which in almost every civilized tongue 
can be described as * The Book ' with the cer- 
tainty of all understanding you when you so 
describe it. The teaching of the Bible to chil- 
dren is, of course, a matter of special interest 
to those of us who have families — and, inci- 
dentally, I wish to express my profound belief 
in large families. The immense moral influ- 
ence of the Bible, though of course infinitely the 
most important, is not the only power it has 
for good. In addition, there is the unceasing 
influence it exerts on the side of good taste, of 
good literature, of proper sense of proportion, 
of simple and straightforward writing and 
thinking. This is not a small matter in an age 
when there is a tendency to read much that, 
even if not actually harmful on moral grounds, 
is yet injurious, because it represents slipshod, 
slovenly thought and work ; not the kind of se- 
rious thought, of serious expression, which we 
Hke to see in anything that goes into the fibre 
of our character. The Bible does not teach us 




CHRIST BLESSING THE CHILDREN. 



THE THEEE CIRCLES. 37 

to shirk difficulties, but to overcome them. 
That is a lesson that each one of us who has 
children is bound in honor to teach these chil- 
dren, if he or she expects to see them become 
fitted to do their part as men and women in the 
world. Again, I want you to think of your 
neighbors, of the people you know. Don't you, 
each one of you, know some man (I am sorry 
to say, perhaps more often, some woman), who 
gives life an unhealthy turn for children 
by trying to spare them in the present the very 
things which would train them to do strong 
work in the future ? Such conduct is not kind- 
ness. It is shortsig-htedness and selfishness ; it 
means merely that man or woman shrinks from 
the little inconveniences to himself or herself, 
of making the child fit itself to be a good and 
strong man or woman hereafter. There should 
be the deepest and truest love for their children 
in the hearts of all fathers and mothers. With- 
out such love there is nothing but black despair 
for the family; but the love must respect both 
itself and the one beloved. It is not true love 
to invite future disaster by weak indulgence for 
the moment. What is true affection for a boy ? 
To bring him up so that nothing rough ever 
touches him, and at twenty-one turn him out 
into the world with a moral nature that turns 
black and blue in great bruises at the least shock 
from any one of the forces of evil with which 
he is bound to come in contact ? Is that kind- 



38 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

ness ? Indeed, it is not. Bring up your boys 
with love and wisdom; and turn them out as 
men, strong-limbed, clear-eyed, stout-hearted, 
clean-minded, able to hold their own in this 
great world of work and strife and ceaseless 
effort." 

WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES. 

If we read the Bible aright, we read a book 
which teaches us to go forth and do the work 
of the Lord; to do the work of the Lord in 
the world as we find it ; to try to make things 
better in this world even only a little better, 
because we have lived in it. That kind of 
work can be done only by the man who is 
neither a weakling nor a coward; by the man 
who in the fullest sense of the word is a true 
Christian, like Great Heart, Bunyan's hero. 
We plead for a closer and wider and deeper 
study of the Bible, so that our people may be 
in fact as well as in theory, " doers of the 
Word and not hearers only." 

Oh, parents, make home the brightest and 
best place in the world — create a zone and an 
influence that will bear testimony in your chil- 
dren while the world stands. In wireless 
telegraphy there is much talk of the zone, and 
of the waves of sound and of the necessity of 
the zone being clear and unobstructed, that 
the opposite pole may be reached in its undis- 
turbed influence; how much more necessary is 
it that the zone life of the home be so unob- 




^^^' 



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THE THREE CIRCLES. 39 

structed that it may reach in its influence no less 
a distance or point than the throne of God in 
heaven. Oh, if the old Eden is lost, we may at 
least in a sense restore it, in an Eden of a pure 
home life ; let us introduce love of Christ as the 
radiance, light and cheer-giving power, that 
shall send its light over all. Open the win- 
dows of the home, dear parents, toward 
Heaven; let us introduce a revival in the 
Church, by its logical antecedent — a revival in 
the home. If a single parent, reading these 
pages, concludes as a result of it, to institute 
the family altar in the home, and thus lead the 
children of that home to Christ and into the 
eternal home, the author is then well paid for 
writing this book. Why not decide now and 
at once to do so. Children open up and bring 
things out of our natures that would otherwise 
remain locked and enclosed there forever. 
How often have dear children been the means 
of binding and holding father and mother to- 
gether as husband and wife, who would in the 
absence of the child have separated ? Ah, the 
very dependence and helplessness of the chil- 
dren bind us to them. What is the value of 
the child? Ask the father and mother of the 
poorest home what they will take for their child 
and they will spurn you and give you to under- 
stand that all your wealth could not buy it. 
But let me ask you, fathers and mothers, as you 
love and value your children so much, to be- 



40 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

ware lest your love lead you to over-indulge 
them, which in the end may become a curse 
rather than a blessing. Make any sacrifice 
that will bless them, and none which may harm 
them. Never nag them, but be firm, gentle, 
loving, insisting in this spirit of obedience, and 
they will bless you forever. The men and 
women of the Church of to-morrow are in the 
homes of to-day. If the children of to-day are 
in homes that are godless and prayerless, what 
hope of the future have we, unless there is a 
revival of religion first of all in the home ? Oh, 
for more altars in the home; 78 per cent of all 
young men in the Church to-day, it is said, 
came out of Christian homes. It is an awful 
thing for parents to bring children into the 
world and then neglect their home life; there 
are plenty of men who are better to the horses, 
cattle, and sheep of the farm than they are to 
their children — granaries, bins and mows full 
of grain and hay; while the children are left to 
no spiritual food, some even giving every atten- 
tion to the bread that perisheth and to clothing 
that fades and wears to rags, while the food and 
clothing of the soul is neglected. How careful 
you are, dear parents, to displace the knife in 
the hands of your child, by an orange or apple, 
yet permitting the children to handle the sharp 
edge tools of sin, that endangers their souls; 
letting them go out into the world to sow 
" their wild oats," only to reap an awful har- 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 41 

vest of death, and often to plunge over 
the Niagara of sin and death at the end of a 
miserable existence. 

Remember that disobedience has its logical 
following in disobedience to God; it is quite 
unlikely that the disobedient children of an 
earthly father will be obedient tO' the heavenly. 
Oh, it is indeed a frightful thing to see a 
wreckage of ships dashed by the furious 
storm upon the rocks of the coast; awful to see 
a palace or city in ashes and ruins; but such 
wreckage and ruin is not to be compared to a 
home wrecked and ruined by sin. 

What are your children worth to you, fond 
parents? You can never know unless you 
have had the experience of seeing them in dying 
hours; see their quivering lips parched with 
fever ; see their eyes fondly looking into yours 
so entreatingly, so pitifully, to help them; not 
until you have heard their moaning and sob- 
bing cries as their little lives were ebbing away ; 
only then, as a rule, can you know the child's 
greatest joy and comfort and value to you. 
Ah, " a little child shall lead them," and many 
a child has, in dying, led the fond parents into 
a Christian life, and on into Heaven. What 
a strange sight to see a great vessel cross the 
sea, and then have to be pulled into port by a 
little tug; and how often the little child has 
been the power tugging away at the heart of 
the father or mother until it drew it safely into 



42 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

the final port of Heaven. 

Ah, there is scarcely any power in the home 
that is so potent in opening- up the sympathies 
and the crusted heart of selfishness in a man or 
woman as a child. A husband and wife hav- 
ing no children became selfish, miserly, hard, 
unsympathetic, and irreligious; but a relative 
dying, left a child to them, and soon the child 
proved to be the key that unlocked their hearts 
and admitted into them sympathy, tenderness, 
charity, liberality, and into most loyal Chris- 
tian dispositions. " A little child shall lead 
them." Father! Mother! Remember that 
though the child may vex and try you, be 
patient, do not let the little one go to bed un- 
happy or in grief, for it may awake you in 
the night in fever and delirium, never recogniz- 
ing you again; and you would then give a 
world to have it back with you. 

God certainly says to all parents, and espe- 
cially to every mother, " Here is a soul of mine; 
take it, tell it of me and my love for it ; teach it 
to love and serve me ; and be its model for me, in 
a pure and holy life, that it may learn of me; 
not only in your precepts, but also in your prac- 
tice in pure and holy living." Let us all realize 
that the Church, State, society and the world 
will never be better till the children are better ; 
and they will not be better until they have more 
specific and better home culture; the first mo- 
ment that the child may be led to Christ is the 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 43 

best one, and every moment, hour, and day 
after that time is in that sense, less the best 
time. 

The children should be led to Christ, and 
sooner than you may think, into the Church; 
to be children of the Church, not men and 
women; receiving careful training in her doc- 
trines and ways, so that when they do come 
into riper years, they may be better trained for 
service, than those coming in later life, in the 
absence of this training. Never allow a child 
to mire in sin that it may realize the pleasure 
of cleansing; but keep it from need of such 
cleansing, by keeping it out of filth. What a 
strange and inconsistent thing, tO' allow chil- 
dren to grow up in the home, and go on 
through the Sunday School out into the world 
unsaved, and then spend time, money, tears, 
and much sorrow to bring them back into the 
fold; so often failing even to do this. The 
home, if properly directed, is more the strong- 
hold of God than the Church; and should we 
have the misfortune of losing either, it had bet- 
ter be the Church than the home ; yet both are 
institutions of God and intended of him to co- 
operate the one with the other until both are 
lost in one, in our home in Heaven. The most 
blessed work of life is in building a true home 
on earth, not of material walls, and rooms 
filled with bric-a-brac and furniture, not a place 
where we merely eat, sleep and stay, but a place 



44 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

where kindred souls dwell in sweet peace and 
fellowship and in communion with the Heav- 
enly Father; any father and mother being in- 
strumental in the making of such a home, are a 
success in life; however much they may seem 
to have failed in other things, and however 
humble in material furnishings the home may 
be, it is yet one of the most blessed places on 
earth if truly Christian. Let me repeat, no 
father or mother who has trained a child for 
Christ has failed. 

WHAT HOME IS. 

Home has been thus variously defined by dif- 
ferent people :. 

" Home is the blossom, of which Heaven is 
the fruit." 

*' The golden setting, in which the brightest 
jewel is mother." 

" The father's kingdom, the children's para- 
dise, the mother's world." 

" The place where the great are sometimes 
small and the small great." 

" The center of our affections, around which 
our heart's best wishes twine." 

" The jewel casket, containing the most pre- 
cious of all jewels — domestic happiness." 

" The only spot on earth where the faults and 
failings of fallen humanity are hidden under 
the mantle of charity." 

" A little hollow scooped out of the windy 
hill of the world, where we can be shielded from 



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THE THREE CIRCLES. 45 

its cares and annoyances." 
. " Home is the central telegraph office of 
human love, into which run innumerable wires 
of affection, many of which, though extending 
thousands of miles, are never disconnected 
from the one great terminus. 

CHRIST AND THE CHILDREN. 

(Seep. 36.) 
Christ was the first great lover of the chil- 
dren. While the great men in philosophy and 
religion of Greece and Rome gave little 
attention to children, and almost in some cases 
apologizing for their existence, He took them 
in His arms and blessed them; and also made 
their innocency and purity the standard for en- 
trance into His kingdom. Yes, Christ Him- 
self was on earth first as a little child. His 
incarnation and birth has sanctified and made 
holy the birth of every child. " Unto us a 
child is born.'' Blessed be the parents who 
really know the importance of the child that 
is born to them. Christianity cares for the 
weakest and most unpromising of them, and 
often makes great men of them, while heathen 
countries dispose of the frailest and most un- 
promising, often apparently with as little or 
less concern or qualms of conscience in the 
matter as many who dispose of the superfluous 
number of kittens about the house. The 
Church following Jesus faithfully will make 
the most of the child. When the love for the 



46 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

child becomes a passion to us, it is one of the 
grandest that could possess us. Parents train- 
ing their children for Christ is one of the best 
gifts they can make to Him. 

Alas for the number of parents in these days 
who make the matter of training their children 
for Christ and the Church a mere matter of 
choice with the child. Lessons of the day and 
secular school education must be taught and 
learned, whether it is agreeable tO' the child or 
not, while this for the soul of the child, for its 
moral and eternal welfare, is allowed to go by 
default, because the child is not inclined to it; 
a most irrational and ruinous policy, and if it is 
not checked, great disaster to the cause of 
Christ must be the result. The children should 
be led to Christ in childhood, for if not led to 
Him then, they in very many cases will not be 
led to Him at all. Not only is it important for 
the child's own sake, but for the cause of 
Christ, in that in being led early to Him, it has 
the whole life left for service, while if even 
saved in age, there must be the loss of the life- 
time of service. The most fascinating work 
in the world is that of leading the child to 
Christ and into service for Him, as the poten- 
tialities and possibilities of the child are so won- 
derful, and the work thus done in the child is 
not for time only, but for eternity. 

CHRISTIAN PARENTAGE. 

" Every child is a bundle of tremendous 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 47 

possibilities, and whetlier the child shall come 
forth to life, its heart attuned to the eternal har- 
monies, and after a life of usefulness on earth 
go to a life of joy in Heaven ; or whether across 
it shall jar eternal discords and after a life of 
wrong-doing on earth, it shall go to a home of 
impenetrable darkness and an abyss of im- 
measurable plunge, is being decided by nursery 
song and Sabbath lesson, and evening prayer, 
and walk and ride and look and frown and 
smile. Oh, how many children in glory, crowd- 
ing all the battlements and lifting a million- 
voiced hosanna, were brought to God through 
Christian parentage." 

You had better bequeath to your children 
the memory of a Godly father and mother, in- 
suring this inheritance to remain in future gen- 
erations, than to leave them millions of money 
to debauch and debilitate their manhood and 
womanhood. Remember that however short 
of your ideal in life you have come at its close, 
your life after all has been a success if you 
have trained a child for Christ. This might 
apply as well to foster parents. We believe it 
is the duty of most childless couples to find 
some orphaned or neglected child and bring it 
up for Christ, this becoming a great blessing 
not only to children so brought up, but equally 
as great to the persons themselves, as the child 
in the home will unlock the affections and 
treasures of the heart as nothing else can do. 



48 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

This is suggested in the story of the man who 
had lost his gold, but found more than its 
equivalent in the little golden-haired child that 
came to him to be cared for, contributing to his 
joy and happiness in life; while the gold he had 
had in coin had only been a care and an annoy- 
ance, hardening and constantly closing the 
fountains of his heart. 

Let me quote the words of S. A. Prooke: 
'" Our home and our society are to us what the 
world is to a great man — the sphere we may 
fill with work that cannot die. The states- 
man moulds the people into order and prog- 
ress — partly by the force of character, and 
partly by great measures. We are the states- 
men of our little world. Every day father and 
mother stamp their characters upon their chil- 
dren's lives, mould their manners, with which 
they direct the household.'' 

If parents oftener realized how many dan- 
gers their children were subjected to along 
life's pathway, in pitfalls, precipices, thistles, 
thorns, and serpents of sin, they would cer- 
tainly more carefully guide their unwary foot- 
steps. It is an alarming situation that the age 
of young criminals is much lower or younger 
in years now than formerly, showing that by 
the neglect of children by their father on ac- 
count of business and other cares, and the 
mother by social and other concerns, other than 
wise direction and training of the children, 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 49 

they are graduating into sin and the ways 
of the world much eadier and in greater num- 
bers than formerly. 

A RADIANT MOTHER. 

From " A Mother's Ideals " : The mother 
spirit is at the bottom of everything that is 
builded for eternity, and love is all there is in 
being a mother. With love enough she can 
fulfill all things. Harmony and power radiate 
from a mother permeated with love — wise 
love. The entire family will respond and de- 
mand law dictated by a love-crowned mother. 
She will be alive and always full of the ex- 
pression of love, giving energy and right direc- 
tion to sons, daughters, and father. Her every 
word will be a joy, a wonder, a surprise to 
all, for it will reach with sympathetic under- 
standing into each heart and liberate in each 
one " emotions that angels might share and 
open up to each paths into life clear and 
straight, radiating from herself as the central 
sun." 

" Man holds the destiny of the nation in his 
hands, but the mother holds the destiny of the 
man." 

" The school world studies the child in the 
mass, but it is the mother who studies it as an 
individual." 

The wife and mother is the queen, ruling a 
realm in influence beyond any other to make 
the nation great and strong. 



50 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

Some one has suggested that the chief study 
of mothers should be the Bible and their chil- 
dren. This age is rightly called the discovery 
of the child. The potentiality of the child 
never before meant so much to men and women 
as it does to-day. Artist, sculptor, teacher, 
preacher, and the parent, more than ever, are 
looking into the prospect of childhood, as the 
basis for the evangelization of the world and 
the permanent betterment of society. Yes, re- 
ligious teachers, philosophers, psychologists, 
and scientists are digging, delving and mining 
in the mind and mines of childhood as never 
before. 

Let me here quote from one who has been 
a blessing to this generation, in the way in 
which he has called attention to the sacredness 
of the home and childhood. I mean no other 
than Froebel : " Only the quiet, secluded sanc- 
tuary of the family can give back to us the 
welfare of mankind. In the foundation of 
every new family, the Heavenly Father, eter- 
nally working out the welfare of the human 
race, speaks to man through the heaven he 
has opened in the hearts of its founders. With 
the beginning of every new family there is 
issued to mankind and to each individual 
human being the call to represent humanity in 
pure development ; to represent man in his ideal 
perfection." 

Again, he says, " With reference to his im- 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 51 

mortal, eternal soul, every human being should 
be viewed and treated as a manifestation of the 
Divine Spirit in human form; as a pledge of 
the love, the grace, and the nearness of God; 
as a gift of God. Indeed, the early Christians 
viewed their children in this light, as is shown 
by the names they gave them. Even as a child, 
every human being should be viewed an3 
treated as a necessary, essential member of hu- 
manity; and therefore, as guardians, parents 
are responsible to God, the child and to 
humanity." These words are indeed golden; 
I only wish that all who as parents read them, 
might resolve and begin at once to make them 
operative in the home by instituting at once 
the family altar, if such an institution is not 
already a part of your home. 

HOME ENVIRONMENT. 

Every creature must have a proper environ- 
ment for its best development, and this law is 
still more insistent in higher law as in that of 
man; the result being that most men in their 
lives are largely what their earlier and later 
environment has been. The joys of the home 
fill life's measure up as no other joys can; its 
misfortunes and disgraces hurt and harm it as 
nothing else could, and its bereavements and sa- 
cred sorrows soften its asperities and chasten its 
life as could be done in no other way; and let 
us remember here that children are simply edi- 
tions, as well as additions of the family book 



^2 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

of life, and that these editions will likely cor- 
respond as nearly to the parents, as the suc- 
ceeding issues of a book correspond to the 
original or first edition ; parents, if you would 
have your children live better lives, then live 
better yourselves ; you cannot live one life, and 
naturally expect to transmit another to your 
children. Parents of this generation are fur- 
nishing the saints and sinners of the next. 

THE KINGDOM OF HOME. 

Dark is the night, and fitful and drearily 

Rushes the wind like the waves of the sea. 

Little care I, as I sit here cheerily. 

Wife at my side, and my baby on knee. 

King, king, crown me the king. 

Home is the kingdom, and Love is the king. 

Flashes the firelight upon the dear faces. 
Dearer and dearer as onward they go. 
Forces the shadow behind us, and places 
Brightness around us with warmth in the glow. 
King, king, crown me the king. 
Home is the kingdom, and Love is the king. 

Flashes the lovelight, increasing the glory, 
Beaming from bright eyes, with warmth in the 

soul. 
Telling of trust and content the sweet story, 
Lifting the shadows that over us roll. 
King, king, crown me the king. 
Home is the kingdom, and Love is the king. 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 53 

Richer than miser with perishing treasure, 
Served with a service no conquest could bring : 
Happy with fortune that words cannot meas- 
ure, 
Light-hearted I on the hearthstone can sing, 
King, king, crown me the king. 
Home is the kingdom, and Love is the king. 
— /. R. Duryea, D. D. 
Some thbughts on the home by the late De- 
Witt Talmage. 

THE WORLD OF HOME. 

A church within a church, a republic within 
a republic, a world within a world is spelled 
with four letters — ■ H-O-M-E. If things go 
right there they go right everywhere; if they 
go wrong there they go wrong everywhere. 
The door-sill of the dwelling house is the foun- 
dation of the church and state. A man never 
gets higher than his own garret nor lower than 
his own cellar. In other words domestic life 
overarches and undergirds all other life. The 
highest house of congress is the domestic circle. 
The rocl^ing chair in a nursery is higher than a 
throne. George Washington commanded the 
forces of the United States, but Mary Wash- 
ington commanded George. Chrysostom's 
mother made his pen for him. If a man should 
start out and run for seventy years in a straight 
line he could not get out from under the shadow 
of his own mantel-piece. 

Blessed is that home by which for a whole 



54 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

lifetime they have been gathering, until every 
figure in the carpet and every panel in the door 
and every casement of the window has a chi- 
rography of its own, speaking out something 
about father or mother, or son or daughter, or 
friend who was with us a while. What a sa- 
cred place it becomes, when one can say : *' In 
that room such a one w^as born; in that bed 
such a one died ; in that chair I sat on the night 
I heard such a one had received a great public 
honor ; by that stool my child knelt for her last 
evening prayer ; here I sat to greet my son as he 
came back from the sea voyage; that was fa- 
ther's cane; that was mother's rocking chair." 
What a joyful and pathetic congress of remi- 
niscences. 

I have one word of advice to give to those 
who would have a happy home, and that is let 
love preside in it. When your behavior in the 
home becomes a mere matter of calculation; 
when the caress you give is merely the result of 
deliberate study of the position you occupy, 
happiness lies stark dead on the hearthstone. 
When the husband's position as head of the 
household is maintained by loudness of voice, 
or strength of arm, by fire of temper, the re- 
public of domestic bliss has become a despotism 
that neither God nor man will abide. O, ye 
who promised at the altar to love each other, 
how dare you commit perjury? Let no 
shadow of suspicion come on your affection. 




A POWER BEHIND A THRONE. 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 55 

It is easier to kill that flower than it is to make 
it live again — the blast from hell that puts out 
that light leaves you in the blackest of darkness 
forever. 

CHRIST IN THE HOME. 

First, last and all the time, have Christ in 
your home. Julius Caesar calmed the fear of 
an affrighted boatman, who was rowing him 
in a stream, by saying to- him, " So long as 
Caesar is with you in the boat no harm can 
come to you ; " and whatever storm of adver- 
sity, or bereavement or poverty may strike 
your home, all is well as long as you have 
Christ the King on board. Make your home 
so far-reaching in its influence that down to the 
last moments of your children's life you may 
hold them with a heavenly charm. At "](> 
years of age the Demosthenes of the American 
Senate lay dying in Washington. I mean 
Henry Clay. His pastor sat at the bedside 
and the old-man-eloquent kept saying in his 
dream : " My mother ! Mother ! Mother ! '* 
May the parental influence we exert be not only 
potential but holy, and so' the home on earth 
be the vestibule of our home in heaven, in 
which place may we all meet — father, mother, 
children, grandchildren, grandparents — all 
the entire group of precious souls. — Talmage. 

HOME COURTESY. 

" Possibly, in the average home, courtesy is 
a scarce commodity ; and it ought not to be so, 



56 THE THEEE CIRCLES. 

for it is one of the most important. No more 
happy and pleasant sight can be imagined than 
a happy, religious home, where each rnember 
tries to make every other member happy, by 
little courtesies and sacrifices, and that wherein 
there is joy or sorrow in the life or experience 
of one, that this joy or sorrow becomes that of 
every other member, in that there is a common 
and united love the one for the other. Chil- 
dren coming out of such homes are usually a 
blessing in all the departments of life into 
which they go : to the community, the church, 
the state, the nation. No Christless home can 
be a perfectly happy one." " There is no hap- 
piness nor misery like that growing out of the 
dispositions which consecrate or desecrate a 
home." '' Home, where a world of strife is 
shut out — a world of love shut in." " Home 
is the blossom of which heaven is the fruit." 
" Home is the father's kingdom, the children's 
paradise, the mother's world — a place where 
you are treated the best and where you grum- 
ble the most." " The only place on earth, 
where the faults and failings of humanity are 
hidden under the mantle of charity." 

HUSBAND AND WIFE. 

If the husband spends most of his nights 
away from home, of choice and not of neces- 
sity, he is not the head of the household ; he is 
only the cashier. H the wife throws the cares 
of the household in the servant's lap and then 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 57 

Spends five nights in the week at the opera or 
theatre, she may clothe her children with sat- 
ins, laces and ribbons, that would confound a 
French milliner, but they are orphans. — Tal- 
mage. 

The husband and wife should have no se- 
crets that they keep from each other, as a rule ; 
at least in important matters; even in business 
matters, in which the wife may not have half 
the knowledge that her husband has, she is 
often able to give him practical advice, that 
would save him from bankruptcy. Dear 
friends, as husbands and wives, bear with each 
other and forbear; you will never regret it and 
your life will be one "sweet song"; remem- 
ber also, that almost any husband or wiife that 
is a Christian may win the other who may not 
be a Christian, to Christ, if he or she is per- 
sistent enough. 

Alas for the Christless and prayerless homes 
of our land, where children never hear a prayer 
from father or mother; where the Bible is 
never opened, except when there is a death in 
the home; where the world has complete con- 
trol. 

THE CRADLE IS THE POWER. 

" In every household where there is a cradle, 
the cradle is the power. The hush of one's 
soul by the side of the cradle is like the hush of 
worship. God seems very near. The new 
hfe there is a divine wonder. The sleeping 



58 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

infant there is the latest miracle from the cre- 
ative hand of God. It is an incarnation of an 
immortal soul started on immortal life. At no 
spot on earth do so many questions get started 
as at the cradle. An infant is a bundle of 
mysteries; a bundle of interrogation points; a 
bundle of problems. A manifold life is 
wrapped up in it. It is gifted and dowered 
with marvelous faculties and forces which 
carry in them sublime possibilities. A babe 
is an interesting thing because it is the incar- 
nation of an immortal soul and carries in it an 
eternity. The little crib out of which looks 
the chubby face, is the fullest thing in the 
world. It is the grandest blessing possessed 
by the human race. Whose heart has infancy 
ever injured? Nay, rather let me ask, into 
the tissue of whose life has it not woven some 
golden thread or some ray of joy or some mas- 
terful purpose or some heavenly tie? Every- 
where it begets love and trust, humility and 
pureness of motive and all the graces which go 
to make up fitness for the kingdom of God. 
Every cradle contains wonders, destinies and 
histories, and condensed potentialities in a 
small package. This is especially true of the 
cradle of Bethlehem, which is the cradle of 
cradles. If it had perished, Christendom 
would have perished with it. And the King- 
dom of God would never have gained a foot- 
hold on earth. This cradle is the cradle 




A MOTHER AND SON WHO HAVE INFLUENCED THE WORLD MORE 
THAN ANY OTHER MOTHER AND SON. 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 59 

among all cradles. It is the incarnation of all 
incarnation. Never was so much compressed 
in so small a compass as was compressed into 
the swaddling bands that held the Child of 
Bethlehem." 



60 THE THREE CIRCLES. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE CHILDREN IN THE HOME. 

A truly Christian home and happy fam- 
ily, where father, mother, brothers and sisters 
dwell together in sweet accord and harmony, 
is the nearest approach to Heaven we can have 
in any earthly institution. How in after life, 
our memories revert to the old home! How 
we like to go back to the old home, see the old 
well, and spring, the old barn where we 
climbed tO' the highest rafter, or where we 
nearly smothered in our mowing away the 
hay; where we heard the cackle of the hen, 
or saw the young roosters fight; or where 
we hid the Easter eggs, or in the fields where 
we saw the little lambs skip and play; alas, 
those happy days have gone; this rugged real 
life is on our hands ; only in memory can we 
joy in the past. Every room of the old home 
has its hallowed associations in memory; the 
favorite old tree of the yard stands there yet 
to remind of the days not only of its fruit ful- 
ness of apples, but of children as well, for on 
its branches perched all the boys and often the 
girls of the family as well. So dear is the old 




A FAMILIAR FARM YARD 3CENE. 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 61 

homestead to those who have been permitted to 
remain in it till old age, that the removal then 
has caused the keenest sufferings and often has 
hastened the death of those removed from the 
sacred scenes of their childhood. The felicity 
of a happy home is beautifully illustrated in 
the following : " How dear to my heart are 
the scenes of my childhood," etc. Children 
may be the greatest joy and comfort of the 
home or its bitterest sorrow and suffering. 
How grand and beautiful is the scene where 
loving children remember the sleepless nights; 
the hours of walking the floor ; the money spent 
for micdicines; the care, the education and all 
that was done for them in their earlier and 
more helpless days ; when they try in a measure 
to repay this care and kindness in tender care 
of father and mother in their sick and declin- 
ing days, and at the very end and close of their 
hves on earth stand by and receive the parting 
blessing and admonition to live truly and meet 
them in a home where they shall be united for- 
ever. 

But, alas for the awful scene where sons and 
daughters have forgotten all that a loving 
father and mother have done for them; when 
they have permitted them to suffer in age, not 
only for the necessities of the physical life ; but 
more still for kind and tender words and min- 
istries; often allowing them to die in poverty 
and neglect, and among strangers, or in " poor 



62 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

houses," permitting them to sob out their lives 
in utmost sorrow and suffering, — parents suf- 
fer often, not only for the carelessness and 
heartlessness of their children, but for those 
who are a curse not only to their parents, but 
to the world as well, in their criminal and 
vicious lives. 

Oh, children! Oh, sons and daughters! let 
me impress upon you this thought, that at best 
you cannot have your dear parents with you 
long. Soon the old arm-chair will be vacant 
never to be occupied again by mother ; soon the 
chair at the head of the table will have lost its 
occupant on earth forever ; father will have de- 
parted and his counsels. 

Children, let me beg of you to be considerate 
of your parents; you will never know their 
value to you until you stand with falling tears 
upon their graves; then, doubtless, if not be- 
fore, you will think of the long nights in your 
infancy, when father and mother walked with 
you, suffered with you, spent money on physi- 
cians for you, and educated you. Ah, then 
son and daughter, remember their hands were 
calloused in toil for you; you should co- 
operate with your parents in making your 
home the happiest, the cheeriest and most sun- 
shiny place in the world, showing your desire 
for song and music, you will find you can give 
your parents and yourself very great joy in 
family songs; be cheerful over the worst con- 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 63 

ditions; one cheerful, light-hearted son or 
daughter will lighten the whole house that 
would otherwise be cheerless and gloomy. 
Cheer and laughter begets cheer and laughter; 
in every way possible children should make 
home happy and first of all in yourselves be 
sure to have Christ in your hearts, for then 
you will be assured of cheer in your home. 
Let me conclude here by calling your attention 
to two important personages, that belong to 
many homes on earth, and many more in the 
home circle beyond; and the use of the term 
IMPORTANT will not be contested by the 
children, I am sure — I mean no other and no 
less significant persons than the grandfather 
and grandmother. Whoever heard of chil- 
dren not caring for these noted people, and 
whoever heard of a boy or girl that was not 
ready for a visit to the grandfather's or grand- 
mother's ? Why, I read recently of a little girl 
who teased her father to take her to her grand- 
mother's, but the father replied : " Daughter, 
you must not bother me now to gO' to grand- 
mother's ; don't you know that it costs ten dol- 
lars to go there and ten dollars don't grow on 
every bush." Then the child well answered: 
" Yes, papa, I know, but don't you know grand- 
mothers don't grow on every bush either." 
Yes, go to see them as often as you can, for 
soon these dear ones of the old home will only 
be a memory — they will have gone beyond 



64 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

all earthly reunions and visitings. 

Dear young men and young 
Should you read these words, remember there 
will be many dang-ers and pitfalls along life's 
pathway, but you need not fear them, if you 
will but heed the warning and danger signals 
that you are taught to observe by your par- 
ents, by the word of God, the wrecks and 
beacon lights along the way, too, will guide 
you past all harm if you only observe. Young 
men, be noble, be brave, be true to virtue and 
honor and above all, to Christ, and you will be 
a great blessing to the world and it to you. 

Young women, you are to be the queens of 
the earth ; not that you will hold visible thrones 
and scepters; but in your pure, virtuous, wo- 
manly characters and hearts, taking Christ as 
your model and guide, you will hold the bal- 
ance of power for Christ and the Church. 

MY mother's grave. 

Rev. M. C. Henderson. 
The grave of my mother is on an elevation 
that overlooks a beautiful village where many 
an hour was spent in study and recreation, in 
days of boyhood. A marble slab marks the 
place where we laid her to rest, nearly a score 
of years ago. Occasionally, during these 
years have we stood by her grave, while pre- 
cious remembrances have crow^ded upon our 
mind, and the sweet hope of meeting again 
cheered our sad heart. Our hands may be 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 65 

full of labor, our hearts burdened with care 
and the responsibilities of life, and our home 
far away, but a mother's grave, with all the 
hallowed associations clustering around, can 
never be forgotten. 

The grave of a mother is indeed a sacred 
spot. It may be retired from the noise of bus- 
iness and unnoticed by the stranger, but to our 
hearts how dear. The love we bear a mother 
is not measured by years, is not annihilated by 
distance, nor forgotten when she sleeps in dust. 
Marks of age may appear in our homes, and 
on our persons, but the memory of a mother 
is more enduring than time itself. Who has 
stood by the grave of a mother and not remem- 
bered her pleasant smiles, kind words, earnest 
prayer, and assurance expressed in a dying 
hour. Many years may have passed, memory 
may be treacherous in other things, but will 
produce with freshness the impressions once 
made by a mother's influence. Why may we 
not linger where rests all that was earthly of a 
sainted mother? It may have a restraining 
influence upon the wayward, prove a valuable 
incentive to increased faithfulness, encourage 
hope in the hour of depression, and give fresh 
inspiration in Christian life. 



66 THE THESE CIRCLES. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE ALTAR IN THE HOME. 

If the home is one of God's most important 
institutions on earth, whereby He plans to 
bring a great portion of the race to a knowl- 
edge of Himself, and if it is to be a source of 
strength and power to the Church and all other 
institutions, that have for their object the up- 
building of His kingdom, is it not well that we 
discover its source of power and insist on the 
installation and application of that power, in 
order that it may set in motion, for good, not 
only all the factors of the institution itself, but 
all others with which it may come in contact? 

If it is necessary for the parents to see that 
there is sufficient supply of food and clothing 
for the physical nature of the children, is it not 
more necessary to provide for the spiritual nur- 
ture ? — not attempting to have the family and 
the home subsist on mere bread alone. The 
conquest of the world for Christ must be be- 
gun in the home and the base of supplies for 
that warfare must be at the family altar. The 
excuse that there is not time will not do; it 
takes less time in the long run to be good than 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 67 

it does to be bad ; at any rate, when your fam- 
ily has gone into collapse and ruin, possibly by 
your neglect and by your haste to attend to the 
things of time and sense, rather than to the 
spiritual welfare of your home, if not before 
you will repent of your error : if there is 
only one family altar in the community, let that 
be in your home — say, " As for me and my 
house we will serve the Lord " ; possibly by 
your stand, another will follow you and an- 
other; at any rate see to it that in your home 
the altar remains. Every day your home is 
without the family altar it is an unfinished and 
an incomplete home. If you do not honor 
God in the home, how can you expect He will 
honor and bless your home? The affairs of 
the home each day will be smoothed if ushered 
in and prefaced by morning devotions; only 
eternity will be able to tell the results of the 
altar in the home. Again, as we are taught 
that the only source of spiritual power and life 
is from God, how necessary it becomes, that 
there should be special plans, in time and place 
for obtaining that power. What better or 
more appropriate time and place can there be 
than either, or both, morning and evening, if it 
be possible, to gather together the several 
members of the home and there invoke the 
divinest blessings upon the home and there im- 
plore God, to fill every member with a knowl- 
edge of His love and care; entreat Him to 



68 THE THREE CIRC^LES. 

guide, protect and keep all ; to make them use- 
ful servants of His as they go their several 
ways in the world for each day, or when they 
are separated the one from the other, that His 
choicest blessings may follow them each and 
all wherever they may be called to go for Him. 

Many men and women there are who 
tell us how much they cherish the memory of 
these happy hours in the old home in family 
prayers — where all had a part, the father 
leading and pleading with his God for the 
richest blessings upon the home and his fam- 
ily; how, that after their going out into the 
world and its busy cares and concerns, they 
often found themselves inclined to be careless 
or too much concerned for the things of the 
world, yet stopping to reflect, and remember- 
ing the old home, the family altar and their 
parents' prayer for their guidance and welfare, 
gave themselves again to their Lord and Mas- 
ter. Yes, the world has indeed a mighty grip 
on us, when we forget and ignore these pray- 
ers and entreaties to God on our behalf. 

The family religion and the altar as its 
means of supply, underlie Society, Church and 
State. No Christian government, healthy 
public sentiment of conscience, no Christian 
philanthrophy, no serious and deep Church 
life, can exist in the absence of love for God 
in the home. When there is an altar to God 
in every home, then, there is a power in the 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 69 

land, that is stronger than any political party, 
army or navy. Even in this commercial, 
busy time, when business and fashion are even 
driving out the home altars and the prayer- 
meeting, I plead for the restoration of the 
family altar, for the time in which no profess- 
ing Christian family will dare go into the busy 
day without this precious prelude of prayer 
at the family altar. I care not how many or- 
ganizations there may be for the development 
of Christian life and power, there is nothing so 
potent and powerful as family worship. Out 
of homes where there is a REAL family altar 
comes the most reverent and substantial ser- 
vants of God that the Church today possesses ; 
not only this, but the greatest men of power 
and of vital influence, in all departments of 
life, are usually from such homes; and not less 
a power than these men are the wives and 
mothers, who have also been brought up around 
the old family altar, influencing husbands and 
sons for God in all their relations in life. 

Important as is the Church prayer-meeting, 
the Sunday School and Young People's meet- 
ing, and all other means of Christian culture 
and grace in the Church, the power for the 
most permanent good lies in the household 
altar and a deep spiritual life in the home. If 
the family is led daily into the sweet and holy 
influence of family prayer, praise and worship. 
Such a family at least will usually profit more 



70 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

than in attendance at the week-night prayer- 
meeting, helpful and necessary as it is to the 
Church ; in fact, it is the family altar that usu- 
ally gives most potency to the Church prayer- 
meeting. Shall we not keep the family altar 
sacred? Shall it not be a place where sweet 
incense from prayer and praise shall rise daily ? 
where this incense shall rise higher than the 
motto on the wall, saying, " God bless our 
home " ; yes, stopping not until it has reached 
the ear of our Lord and Savior in Heaven. 
Oh, for the day, in which this land may be 
noted for its Christian homes where in each 
one there is that charming family prayer circle, 
making more strong and powerful this great 
nation each day of its existence; and not only^ 
this, but of more importance still, the Church 
of Christ His bride on earth. 

May the day return when the father is the 
prophet and priest of the home, in leading his 
family in daily devotions; when the Bible will 
cease to be an unopened book as it is in many 
professing Christian homes today. iGod for- 
bid that so much godlessness, prayerlessness 
and indifference shall continue in this, God's 
own most sacred institution. May the day 
come when a devoted servant girl will not flee 
in fear as one did once from a home, because 
the family for which she was to work did not 
have family prayers. 

Parents, do you realize that the good 




HAPPY CHILDREN AMONG THE FLOWERS. 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 71 

men and also the bad ones and the criminals 
of the next generation, must come out of your 
home or some other? Why not insure the 
one, and prevent the other, by making your 
home the best possible in its environment. 
Have family devotions, and train carefully 
your children for Christ, and this will be, pos- 
sibly, better for them than a college education, 
in the absence of this training, practical and 
sensible as it is to give them the college educa- 
tion when you can. Are you too busy to have 
family devotions? Then you are busier than 
some noble presidents have been, who have 
kept up regularly their family devotions and 
their attendance upon the week-night prayer- 
meeting. If you are too busy, then you are 
busier than a number of the greatest business 
men in America. Let me here quote from one 
of them in the following : " No difference 
how busy I am, I have never been so occupied, 
that I could not assemble about me my family 
every morning for worship. It is my custom, 
although my desk may be heaped high with 
pressing business, to gather the household to- 
gether after breakfast for a brief season of 
prayer and thanksgiving." 

It is evident that no home life is complete 
in the absence of the family altar. If it is lost 
to the home, it is a loss that cannot otherwise 
be made good. It sweetens the life of every 
member of the home; it oils up the machinery 



72 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

of the active and often grinding toil of the 
members of the home for the day as nothing 
else could do; it is an influence for good, not 
only to the members of the home, but to all 
those who in any way come in contact with 
the home. How many fond memories cluster 
about the old family altar ? Whatever organi- 
zations and substitutes we may have, for the 
family altar, there is none that can ever pj'op- 
erly displace it. I would not have less — 
but more — of the Sunday-school training and 
the Young People's societies, in their grand 
and practical work for Christ and the Church, 
but I would not allow them in any sense to 
become substitutes for family training; let 
them be supplemental, not substitutional; then 
they themselves will more nearly fulfill their 
mission and purpose. Then would the Church 
in all her departments be stronger than she 
could be without this great foundation for her 
success, back in the home. Do we not see 
that not only should the first Christian instruc- 
tion come from the parents with their natural 
authority and influence, but also that it must 
be much more effective and permanent, from 
the fact that it is a constant and pervasive one, 
while that of the organizations of the Church 
in its Sunday-school, Young People's organi- 
zations, prayer-meetings, etc., are usually for 
a brief half hour or so a week. It is also 
much easier for pastors and all workers of the 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 73 

church to lead the children on in religious 
activities and life when they come from Chris- 
tian homes than when they do not. Let us 
remember that bad parents usually have bad 
homes. The home should be as holy as the 
church, and entering its doors ought to sug- 
gest as much the " Holiness to the Lord," as 
entering the place of worship in the church. 



74 THE THEEE CIRCLES. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE HOME IN SOCIAL AND CIVIC LIFE. 

Communities and societies are composed of 
individuals and these individuals are repre- 
sentatives of the homes. Then in order that 
this factor of the community and society shall 
be such as shall produce the most harmonious 
and practical results in the community it be- 
comes necessary to be solicitous and concerned 
for the welfare of the home. 

It is usually an easy matter to determine the 
general character of the homes of a commu- 
nity, rural, village and city, by the conduct and 
general deportment of the people in these sev- 
eral communities. If the tone is low, rude, 
vulgar, coarse, it is a reasonable conclusion 
that the source of such conduct and character 
is in the homes producing such conduct. 

Let the societies, organizations, lodges, 
clubs, guilds, fraternities, unions, etc., be ob- 
served in their conduct, characteristics and 
tendencies and you will see here also, mirrored 
and well reflected, the conduct, character, tone 
and life in most of the homes, supplying these 
institutions with men and women. Again, let 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 75 

US remember that while the community will not 
rise in tone and character, and will not average 
above the average home supporting it, there 
may be, nevertheless, a few strong, well de- 
fined, moral and religious homes that will have 
a leavening effect upon those being looser and 
of weaker moral tone; and we find also that 
these better homes represented in communities, 
societies and collections of persons in their sev- 
eral organizations have a strong tendency to 
subdue, modify and soften the asperities, the 
coarse irreligious and immoral tendencies in 
conduct and character. 

How necessary then, here again, in the 
home, that we urge the utmost and most care- 
ful training for substantial, sober, sane citi- 
zenship and society, in this best of all training 
schools, the home. If in these days of social- 
istic concern and interest, those so deeply con- 
cerned would only turn their attention and di- 
rect their efforts, thoughts and energies upon 
the institution, — the home, — which is the base 
of all these questions and problems, then, in- 
deed, there would follow some effectual and 
important results. The home is distinctively 
a social institution; the family life of a com- 
munity certainly shapes a community's life fa- 
vorably or unfavorably. If the home is not 
properly socialized and Christianized, the com- 
munity and society will be brutalized and bur- 
glarized. Each home of a social settlement is a 



76 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

unit and a factor of that community's life and 
not only this, but each member of the home or 
family being again a unit and factor, it reduces 
the problem down to a personal consideration 
of the necessity of a single person being pure, 
honest, social, kind and religious, affecting the 
whole society or community of which he is a 
part to the extent of his personality and indi- 
vidual power. If we would oftener realize our 
influence, as related factors, of home or society 
we would very likely conduct ourselves differ- 
ently. Also let us remember every marriage 
and formation of a new home tells on the com- 
munity life as a whole either for good or ill, 
according as the husband and wife come from 
good or evil homes ; and so on in the children 
of this new home comes still more results for 
the weal or woe of the community of which 
they are a part. 

THE HEART OF SOCIETY. 

All social life centers in the home. Its 
moral and spiritual temperature determines the 
character of the people. This fundamental 
fact is emerging into new notice in modern 
studies of social conditions. 

The danger of American institutions today 
is not so much that of godless schools as of 
godless homes, or the abandonment of the 
home altogether, and it is toward this that the 
reformers ought to turn their attention. The 
New Bedford Standard, speaking of marital 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 77 

difficulties and the divorce evil, says that the 
essentials to ideal wedded relations are men 
and women with character to insure the ideal. 
Home life perpetuates itself whatever influ- 
ences from without are brought to bear on it. 
The forces that make it ideal must be re-creat- 
ed within it. Quotations on this theme might 
be given from scores of newspapers. 

The correct diagnosis of all bodily diseases 
traces their sources back to the heart. The 
pulse beats show its action, but if the lifeblood 
cannot be purified there and sent forth again 
on a mission of health, no cure for the patient 
is possible. The home is the heart of the 
whole social structure. If love and truth abide 
in it, if Christ reigns in it, then the schools will 
not be godless, the Church will not decay, con- 
fidence in business relations will be unshaken, 
the State will be sound and safe. 

The best service which young men and 
women can render to their country is to found 
and cultivate Christian homes from which so- 
ciety draws its life and by which it keeps 
healthful. The highest duty of those who live 
in homes is to make them as near to the ideal 
as possible. Those who neglect that duty, 
who do not make it of first importance, what- 
ever their service to society and the State, are 
superficial reformers. — Congregationalist. 

THE HOME IN THE CITY. 

If in these days of " graft," corruption, mal- 



/ 



73 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

administration, foulness and rottenness in mu- 
nicipalities and city governments, there should 
be a revival of stern honor and the strictest in- 
tegrity introduced in the home; if the father 
of the home himself should trust God and also 
love his fellow man, desire to do no man 
harm, and sees to it that his sons are held to 
strict account in veracity, honor and integrity, 
that all tricks, falseness, shams, lying and de- 
ception are punished severely, the sons coming 
from such homes w,ould assert themselves in 
no uncertain terms, and their conduct would 
be an honor to their homes and their city. If 
a few more noble men, rising in honor and 
fearlessness, above graft, thieving, bribery, and 
even judicial rascality, in city and municipal 
governments, as some have done, it would not 
be long, til! penitentiaries would be filled by 
these grafters and robbers, and what could not 
be caught would take their flight to more con- 
genial climes. It will be allowed as an excep- 
tion to prove the rule, that now and then these 
chief bribers and city treasury robbers will 
claim to have had good home training and to 
have been brought up in the Sunday School 
and the Church ; but in most cases we will find 
that these homes from which they came were 
rather loose and slack, defective and uncer- 
tain in religious morals and ethical tone; or, if 
not this, that these rascals from these nominal 
Christian homes have inherited an evil ances- 




HUMAN SYMPATHY, OR PRESENT AND FUTURE "GOOD 
SAMARITANS." 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 79 

try, that even a Christian home and influence 
has not been sufficient to overcome. 

Possibly in such cases the judge might be 
persuaded by an urgent attorney for the de- 
fendant, to give a Hght sentence to the culprit 
inasmuch as it is an evident case of klepto- 
mania ; alas ! in these days how many seem to 
be making use of this lovely pretext to blame 
their ancestry or God for their contemptible 
meanness and studied thievery. It is much 
more economical from a civil and municipal 
government standpoint to fashion and form 
children in the home for good citizenship, than 
it is to re- fashion, reform them by law in courts 
and prisons. Much better every way to train 
men to be good citizens than to try to make 
good ones out of the bad. 

THE HOME IN THE STATE AND NATION. 

After having attached so much importance 
to the home and its life and training therein 
for the community, society and city welfare, 
we would consider it not less important in its 
life, training and discipline for that larger and 
wider range of its influence in the State and 
Nation. Again, since we have asserted that 
the community and society life will not aver- 
age higher than its homes, we would re-assert 
here, this same principle and add that the 
rulers, law makers and jurists of a common- 
wealth or nation will not rise above the aver- 
age of the homes of the commonwealth or Na- 



80 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

tion, and here, again, is usually a fair reflector 
and mirror of the homes in the life and con- 
duct of the rulers of a given State or Nation ; 
allowing that exceptional rulers or law mak- 
ers, good or bad, shall prove the rule. We will 
find upon investigation that most of our Presi- 
dents have come from homes of strong moral, 
religious and ethical tone; from homes that 
have taught that it is " better to be right than 
to be President," and this same test may be 
successfully applied to the investigation of the 
homes of our greatest law makers, statesmen, 
diplomats, and jurists; many of these manly 
and noble enough to honor their home and 
parentage in oft repeated declarations that all 
they are or hope to be they owe to their home 
training; to a moral, upright, manly father, or 
to a pure and godly mother, who led them to 
<jod in prayer — a mother, whether still living, 
or dead, whose memory is ever dear to them, 
especially in trying and vexing times, when 
they remember her unerring counsel to them 
in morals and manners, in the dear old home. 
The home is a most constructive institution; 
we have seen that its factors produce the people 
of a given society, community or city, and also 
its factors in character and conduct. So here, 
once more, we see that men and women who 
establish and maintain homes, are the con- 
servers of the State and Nation, and again the 
principle asserting itself, that the Nation as a 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 81 

whole is largely like the factors that compose 
it, and if around the fireside and in the sacred 
precincts of the home there is virtue, integrity, 
honor, patriotism and above all true religion, 
there is an assurance, at least so long as such 
conditions hold, of the permanance and perpe- 
tuity of the government. 

" There are two essentials for a permanent 
republic — the first is a pure living religion 
which puts into daily practice the teachings of 
Jesus Christ, and the second is a true home life, 
where father, mother and children spend much 
time together; where family worship is pre- 
served; where honesty, purity and mutual af- 
fections are developed. Give us these two 
things and we can save and maintain the Re- 
public."— C. M. Sheldon. 

HOME THE FOUNTAIN HEAD. 

Home is the fountain head and source of 
earthly citizenship. The laws and conduct of 
a people mirror and reflect the homes of peo- 
ple. If in the home the children drink of the 
bitter waters of sin, the stream of life issuing 
into civic life must also be bitter. If the home 
is cursed by intemperance, the influence does 
not stop with the wreckage of that home, but 
becomes a part of the pollution of society. De- 
moralize the home and you have undermined 
all domestic happiness, and you have added to 
the general ill of humanity, and to that of the 
state and nation as well. A nation unsupport- 



82 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

ed by loyal and virtuous homes will sooner 
or later topple and fall when decay has done its 
full work. 

The virtues cultivated in the family circle 
are an absolute necessity for the State. If 
there be not enough moral principle to make 
the family adhere, there will not be enough po- 
litical principle to make the State adhere. 
" No home " means the Goths and Vandals ; 
means the Nomads of Asia; means the Nu- 
midians of Africa, changing from place to 
place as the pastures happen to change. Con- 
founded be all those Babels of iniquity which 
would overtower and destroy the home. The 
same storm which upsets the ship, in which 
the family sails, will sink the Frigate of the 
Constitution. Jails and penitentiaries, armies 
and navies are not our best defences. The 
door of the home is the very best fortress. 
Household utensils are the very best artillery, 
and the chimneys of our dwelling houses are 
our grandest monuments of safety and tri- 
umph. No home, no Republic. — Talmage, 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 83 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE HOME IN THE CHURCH AND HEAVEN. 

What a happy day it will be for pastors, 
Sunday-school superintendents, teachers and 
all Church workers, when children coming 
from the homes will come from those where 
there are family altars, where the children have 
been led to Christ in prayer, before coming to 
church, Sunday-school or Young People's so- 
ciety; when they shall come not to find Christ 
through pastors and teachers — they having 
found him in their homes, — but to be trained, 
developed and instructed for service in this 
great institution, the Church of God, this in- 
stitution of which there is none greater, except 
the home, which is the foundation and base 
upon which the Church itself is built, and with- 
out which there could be no Church worthy 
the name. 

Since the influence of the circle of the home 
is all that it is in the other departments of life 
and in other institutions, we must now con- 
clude that it is of more significance and im- 
portance to the Church, for the Church is after 
all only a larger home, a collection of smaller 



84 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

homes, meeting as one greater family of God 
for further development and preparation for 
the final home in heaven. 

The safest and surest road to Heaven is by 
the way of the Home and the Church; it is 
a sensible, natural and expected thing that 
older members of the home accepting Christ, 
and striving to live true Christian lives, should 
not only attend, but become active members of 
the Church of God. Then why should it be 
thought a thing incredible, or strange, that 
children, as members of these same households, 
also should desire to have a part in the actual 
membership in this larger family, and fold of 
God ? Why are they not, when old enough to 
know right and wrong, — and this is much 
earlier than many think, — allowed the right 
and privilege of membership in the Church, 
as children ? For we find these older members 
of the family often, before examining com- 
mittees for the church, do not give as good 
account of their lives as the children, and often 
when put to the test with the children of a 
knowledge of doctrines and creeds, are em- 
barrassed by the children's superior knowl- 
edge, and when asked to quote a passage of 
Scripture are still more confused, in a contest 
Vv^th the children. If the favors were be- 
stowed upon those having the purest lives, the 
clearer apprehensions of what constitutes 
Christian life and conduct, the children would 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 85 

be the favored ones; we believe that if Christ 
were here upon earth and should see the elders 
and disciples insisting on keping the children 
back, that he would do as he did when here 
among men, rather push the men back, and 
take the little ones into his arms, and say, " Of 
such is the Kingdom of Heaven," and would 
receive them then and there into His kingdom 
and fold with all the rights of membership and 
fellowship of the older members. 

What should we think of a shepherd who 
should carefully, each night, gather the sheep 
of his flock into folds from the cold and from 
devouring beasts and all dangers outside, and 
should leave the little lambs of the flock with- 
out to perish; yet such inconsistency is no 
greater than that in many homes and churches, 
where it is urged that children shall not be ac- 
corded the right to church membership! and 
where they are treated in regard to nurture, 
discipline and care with most frightful negli- 
gence and unconcern. However, we would 
not for a moment allow that in urging that 
children should be permitted church member- 
ship, that the home training, discipline and 
nurture should be slackened in any way, for as 
we have before said, and insist here now em- 
phatically, that the parents, and especially the 
mother, ordinarily should be ashamed to per- 
mit her children to slip through her care, and 
not be led to Christ, and have to admit that 



86 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

she had neglected her duty in leaving for the 
teacher in the Sunday School or anyone tO' do 
what she had neglected. All honor to teach- 
ers and workers, who will, when finding 
neglect of homes, take these children and 
lead them to the Savior, yet their time should 
be reserved for such work among orphans, out- 
casts and those who come from homes not 
Christian in any sense, and also for the work 
of training for service in the church, rather 
than being compelled to do what careless par- 
ents had failed to do. Whenever the Church 
in any of her departments, Sunday School, 
Young People's societies, etc., becomes a sub- 
stitute, instead of a supplement, for the home 
and parental training, she is in error. 

Yet, the children must be converted and led 
into the church, if not by the parents, then by 
the church, and the church that insists on the 
parents leading their children to Christ and 
into His church when they will, and doing it 
herself when the parents fail, is the church 
that is going to be a vigorous and growing 
church. Possibly no greater example of this 
has been seen anywhere than in the lamented 
and great Spurgeon, who led such great num- 
bers of children into his church, and who so 
often testified that the children, as children, 
and even when older, gave him much less con- 
cern, for their life, character and conduct, than 
did those who came into his church through 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 87 

riper years — those who had been connected 
more with the sin and temptation of the world 
were more easily tempted to return to the fol- 
Hes from which they had come. And worse 
still and more alarming is the small proportion 
of persons accepting Christ and coming into 
His Church, in adult life. The problem is still 
more important since each succeeding year 
after childhood lessens the probability of the 
person ever accepting Christ. 

How important it is that the child be led to 
Christ, not only for its own benefit and salva- 
tion, but for its larger influence in the world. 
Let us illustrate: A child of ten years gives 
his heart to Christ and begins a consecrated 
and loyal service for his Master, and continues 
this service until he is seventy years of age; 
at the same time a man of 60 years of age 
gives his heart to Christ and begins a loyal 
service to his Master; but you see the aged 
one has lost in every way compared with the 
youth; the youth having 60 years of service 
to his credit not only as against the aged one's 
ten years, but all that discipline, training and 
qualification for his future home, and the worst 
of it is not only the difference of 10 years, but 
so often 60 years against a complete loss of 
life of service, as each succeeding year lessens 
the probability of one in adult life ever giving 
his heart to Christ. Allowing the aged one 
does finally come to Christ, the Church, the 



88 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

community, city and State all have lost by his 
former life being on the wrong side. Let us 
ever remember that the standard of measure 
for entrance into Christ's Kingdom is the 
child. 

The brightest lights of the Church have 
been those who were brought to Christ when 
mere children, among them, Adam Clarke, A. 
Cookman, I. Watts, Robt. Hall, J. Edwards. 
Yes, if Christ were here on earth He would 
receive the children into His Church first 
and then as fast as parents and others ar- 
river at, and came up to the standard of the 
child. He would then receive them ; if He were 
enfolding sheep of the flock He surely would 
take the lambs into the fold first, and let the 
older sheep, if any must, remain out in the 
cold and storm. He, if having a banquet, 
would sit the little children at the first table 
of His blessings, and if any food remained the 
older ones might then be fed. Yes, childhood 
is the springtime promise of a harvest, good or 
ill ; it is a potential period which is to issue into 
certainties good or ill, according to its direc- 
tions by its parentage and the Church. The 
home is the foundation of the Church and any- 
thing interfering with its spiritual progress 
necessarily interferes with the progress and 
prosperity of the Church. 

THE CHURCH HOME. 

Since many persons are orphaned, some es- 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 89 

tranged and away from their own parental 
homes, great numbers, as roomers and board- 
ers in the cities, it is necessary that the Church 
be a real home, not only for the interests of 
those who come from their family homes in 
service to the larger home, the Church, but also 
for those who have no home and not finding 
social and religious interests here, will likely 
not find them at all, and worse will likely seek 
social life in questionable resorts of the city 
that will in many cases lead tO' their loss of 
moral character and likely to a loss of their 
eternal homes, insuring their orphanage, not 
only in this world but the next one also. Yes, 
the Church ought to be the center of the pres- 
ent life from the homes not only for those who 
have no homes, but for those who come from 
homes that are evil and positively harmful. 
Here is an opportunity for the Church to show 
its real worth. 

THE HOME IN HEAVEN. 

We remember that in our first chapter, The 
Importance of the Home, we insisted that one 
of the most magnetic and charming words in 
our language is the word HOME, but now 
being in the presence and under the spell of 
that other charming and soul electrifying word 
— HEAVEN — we cannot choose between 
these lovely companions in thought, but will 
unite and blend them, in a bond of union that 
shall be as inseparable as the glorious life they 



90 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

represent in no less than that of Home and 
Heaven forever. 

The Home after all is only the beginning of 
Heaven on Earth ; the nearest approach we can 
come to the likeness of Heaven on Earth is in 
this most blessed institution of God, the 
HOME. Is there a felicity more complete; a 
happiness more unalloyed; a pleasure deeper 
and more sublime than a happy home? Is 
there any place on Earth that so nearly repre- 
sents our anticipations of Heaven as the happy 
Christian Home? 

No wonder we are wont to sing, so often, 
" Oh, the home of the soul, in my vision and 
dreams ! her bright jasper walls I can see." 
Yes, the eternal home of the soul, where we 
shall be freed from the environments of sin, 
suffering, sorrow, separation and death, that 
home in which the life perfected in Him, shall 
go on in its expanding and increasing its joys, 
forever — where a day in it will be worth a 
lifetime of effort to obtain. 

Ah, the thought of it — we walk and talk 
together here — we separate at the grave, and 
then we meet in an heavenly home where we 
shall walk and talk together forever. 

Oh, it is awful to stand by the dying friend 
and dear one and see the life slowly ebbing out ; 
the light flickering more feebly, and then going 
out entirely. What heart searchings and ques- 
tions at such a moment. It is hard enough 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 91 

to say good-bye here for a brief season or jour- 
ney on earth, but alas! for that final earthly 
good-bye; yet we have a cheer and comfort in 
the hope of our eternal home of Him in 
Heaven. 

That home where Christ is always in the 
midst; where the redeemed of earth shall ever 
hold sweet converse in the presence of Him 
who is so happy in our enjoyment of that 
home, that He promised, while on earth, He 
would go and prepare for us; and happy He 
will be in seeing our joy in these mansions He 
not only promised, but has now in love given 
us possession. 



92 THE THEEE CIRCLES. 



THE CHURCH CIRCLE. 

CHAPTER I. 

THE IMPORTANCE Ol? THE CHURCH. 

The most direct path from earth to Heaven 
is by the way of the home and the Church. — See 
p. 60 

I LOVE THY KINGDOM, LORD. 

I love Thy kingdom, Lord, 

The house of Thine abode. 

The Church oui* blest Redeemer saved 

With His own precious blood. 

I love Thy Church, O God; 
Her walls before Thee stand. 
Dear as the apple of Thine eye, 
And graven on Thy hand. 

Beyond my highest joy 

I prize her heavenly ways, 

Her sweet communion, solemn vows. 

Her hymns of love and praise. 

If the home is God's first and most important 
institution on earth, whereby He discipHnes and 
trains souls for His kingdom, here and hereafter, 
the Church is certainly not more than second in 
significance and importance as a disciplinary and 
training school. Yes, the Church is not only in 
many ways equal to the home, as a soul-redeem- 
ing and soul-training agency, but in some ways 
it is superior to it. 

The Church indeed is most precious in His 
eyes, since He was willing not only to live and 
suffer for her, but also to die for her. All this 
that He might show that " God so loved the world 
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoso- 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 93 

'ever believeth in Him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life." 

After all we believe that both the home and 
the Church are so closely allied and associated in 
their mission and work in redeeming and saving 
the world that they are equally precious in God's 
sight. While the home should first lead souls to 
a knowledge, love, and acceptance of Christ, 
and also initiate these souls in service for Him, 
the path from the home to the Church should be 
well worn by these servants in their desire for a 
wider range and a larger sphere of labors and 
efforts, than could usually be found in the im- 
mediate circle of the home. 

When the Master so seriously and plainly com- 
manded the disciples to go into all the world 
and preach the Gospel to all, he certainly ex- 
pected the home to instill the missionary spirit 
in the child, that when it came into the Church 
it might be trained and sent of it, out in the 
world to do its share in fulfilling this great com- 
mand. This it has been trying to do, and 
only eternity can reveal the great amount of good 
done and the countless number of souls saved 
l)y the grand missionaries of the Cross. 

Again, the influence of the Church in society, 
the city, the State, and the nation, has been great, 
and far greater than many believe; we know 
something of her blessed influences along these 
lines, but what the condition of all would have 
been without her is too fearful to contemplate. 

As to her blessings in charity, benevolence and 
philanthropy, it is diflicult to determine how 
much she has accomplished, for many charitable, 
benevolent and philanthropic organizations and 
activities have been indirectly as well as directly 
accomplished by the Church, in that the spirit 
and desire to do these things for humanity has 
been created mostly in the Church if not by her 
carried out in practical activities. 



94: THE THREE CIRCLES. 

Yes, the importance, power and influence of 
the Church of God on earth is far beyond the 
abiHty of her friends to estimate; and always 
more than her enemies are wilHng to concede. 
Let me state here that the expression, " The 
Church," has reference to the whole body of 
Christian believers, under any name, sect, de- 
nomination or division. The Church is impor- 
tant because instituted of Christ and is ever the 
object of His love and care; the faithful church 
has ever been and ever will be blessed of God; 
it is that which was purchased at the cost of the 
life of His own Son. — John 3 : 16. 

THE MODEL CHURCH. 

" Men are weary of supporting religious clubs. 
The Church is not an end but an agency. The 
Church does not live, to live, but to make live. 
The Church does not exist primarily for the sake 
of its members. The Church is not a cradle, but 
a workshop ; not a pleasure camp by some quiet 
lake, but an army in array. The Church home is 
not a nest in which the people play the part of 
birdlings and the minister the part of a weary 
mother, bringing food to the great, gaping 
mouths. The true minister works hard to pro- 
vide food suitable for people hungry for the Gos- 
pel. But the people must not think that eating 
is all they have to do. If the Church home is in 
any sense a nest, it must be an eagle's nest from 
which with beak and claws the mother drives the 
birdlings into active life, that they may learn to 
use their wings. The Church is not a cabin 
of an ocean palace, but a lifeboat on its mission 
of rescue; not a sleeping car for the quiet re- 
pose of souls, but an engine mighty in its energy 
to draw men to Calvary. If the pastor of the 
model church tells the truth, and the members are 
hit, they stand up like men and take it. He is a 
coward who runs. If the pastor does not tell 
the Gospel truth, the members get rid of him, 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 95 

but they never desert the Church. The model 
church is composed of faithful Christians; not 
angels, but men and women who have a supreme 
desire to love and obey Christ in heart and hfe. 
They are not perfect, but there are no Achans in 
the camp. The model church is a home, in the 
peace and love that sanctifies the relationship, in 
the warm welcome given to strangers ; a place 
which the children think of, not as a mill to grind 
life out in, a place to leave as soon as possible, 
but a place of pleasure and happiness. The 
model church is business-like in its methods. 
Shadowy ways of raising funds are avoided. Its 
conscience is as sensitive as the individual's. It 
is not a humble pensioner on the community, hat 
in hand; but an organization recognized as giv- 
ing far more than it receives." 

A HEALTHY CHURCH. 

A healthy church kills error and tears in pieces 
evil. Not so very long ago our nation tolerated 
slavery in her colonies. Philanthropists tried to 
destroy it, but when was it utterly abolished? It 
was when the Church of God, roused by Wilber- 
force, and when the Church of God addressed 
herself to the conflict, then she tore the evil thing 
to pieces. I have been amused at what Wilber- 
force said the day after the '' Act of Emancipa- 
tion " was passed ; he merely said to a friend 
when it was all done, " Is there not something 
else we can abolish ? " That was said playfully, 
but it shows the spirit of the Church of God. 
She lives in conflict and victory ; her mission is 
to destroy everything that is bad in the land. See 
the fierce devil of intemperance, how it devours 
men ! If ever intemperance is put down it will 
be when the entire Church of God shall arouse 
herself to protest against it. When the strong 
lion rises up the giant of drunkenness shall fall 
before him. He shall not lie down until he eat 
of the prey, and drink of the slain. — Spurgeon. 



96 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

SNEERING AT THE CHURCH. 

Only the ignorant and the low-minded sneer 
at the Church ; to all others the mere act of wor- 
ship, however imperfect and inadequate, is a 
sacred thing. Along this avenue of visible adora- 
tion of the unseen God all the highest and the 
holiest have walked; forth from these shrines 
men and women have gone to all the glorious 
martyrdoms ; out of this worship have come those 
restraining forces which have held back the baser 
passions, and those commanding aspirations 
which have led the march to civilization. It has 
never been enough that men should acknowledge 
God in the secret chambers of their own souls ; 
the needs of the great world have demanded pub- 
lic declaration of faith and service; the private 
adoration has sought for visible shrine and audi- 
ble worship as surely and by as sure a law of 
nature as the sap at the root of the tree seeks 
the revelation of itself in flowers and fruit. — 
Lyman Abbott. 

STRENGTH i3Y ACTION. 

How long must the Church live before it will 
learn that strength is won by action, and success 
by work ; and that all this immeasurable feeling, 
without action and work, is a positive damage to 
it; that it is the procurer of spiritual obeisity,, 
gout and debility. — /. G. Holland. 





THE SAFEST PATH FROM EARTH TO HEAVEN IS BY THE WAY OF 
THE HOME AND THE CHURCH. 



THE THEEE CIRCLES. 97 



CHAPTER 11. 

THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE CHURCH. 

As Christ made the child the standard of meas- 
ure for entrance into His kingdom he certainly 
would use the same standard as a qualification for 
membership in His Church, as the same life, con- 
duct or character would be demanded for either. 
We should urge nothing more of candidates for 
membership in the Church than the Great Head 
and Author of the Church has demanded. When 
we reflect a little we readily see that the standard 
is higher than we at first might think, for when 
we are as innocent of wrong, as humble, teach- 
able, confiding, hopeful and trustful as the child, 
we are in much better condition for entrance into 
His Kingdom and Church than many that are 
received, after their formal assent and consent 
to a creed of the denominations as long or longer 
than the moral law. 

Whatever else might seem necessary for a 
local church or denomination to add in covenant, 
confession and creed, it should, when certainly 
assured that the candidate for membership has 
repented of his sins, been accepted of Christ, has 
only one desire and that to love and serve his 
Lord and Savior the remainder of his life, be 
willing to receive such a one into the Church. 
One coming in thus would be beyond comparison, 
of more value than one coming into membership 
with a hundred creedal consents, which would 
mean little or nothing more than so many forms 
and rules for membership in the Church. 



98 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

Here again, as we said in reference to " The 
Home in the Church," and also referring to 
Spurgeon's experience and statements, the chil- 
dren, and those of child-mindedness, coming into 
Church membership would not only be of more 
value to the Church, but would also be of much 
less burden and trouble to it than many are who 
do not come in such condition. 

Now, after having in a measure suggested the 
qualifications and standard for admission to the 
Church of Christ, we would consider some rea- 
sons why all persons that claim to be Christians 
and interested in the welfare and purpose of the 
Church, should join it. 

First, it certainly is one of God's greatest agen- 
cies for winning and training souls for His King- 
dom. If so we are surely not in harmony with 
His will when we refuse to become a part of so 
important an institution. Important as it is, and 
of God, it can only have its progress of those who 
are interested in it and are willing to work for it. 
If some shirk their responsibility and obligation 
in not becoming members, others have an equal 
right to do the same, and if all acted in this selfish 
way there would soon be no Church. The pleas 
that are usually offered for not so doing are 
usually cowardly and not reasons at all but only 
pretexts and excuses ; especially such as '' The 
Church is not perfect " ; of course it is not ; who 
says it is? If it were perfect, it would not be if 
yoii entered it ; it is not a company of saints and 
angels, but rather a school of disciples and learn- 
ers, taking Christ as their teacher and His word 
as their text-book, striving each day to learn and 
know more of Him, that they may love and serve 
Him better and grow continually in grace, until 
He shall say, " Well done, good and faithful ser- 
vant." Again, *' There are hypocrites in the 
Church," sure enough, but did you ever stop to 
think that this is one of the best arguments, that 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 9& 

there are persons in it who are not hypocrites, 
and at least the institution is a worthy and ex- 
alted one or there would be no occasion for such 
frauds joining it ; it is only the real, the true, the 
genuine, that is imitated. " The best evidence," 
as some one has said, " that there are good dollars 
is in the fact of counterfeits on the market." 
Who is going to be foolish enough to waste his 
time in imitating what is commonly known to be 
false ; what gain could there be ? 

Again, " I can live a Christian without joining 
the Church." Are you sure ? Possibly you can, 
but will you not likely lead a very poor, inefficient, 
lame and unworthy one ? Might you not as well 
say the same, in regard to all other organizations, 
lodges, clubs, circles, unions, guilds, etc., that 
you will not join them, but you will be one of 
them, and be as useful to them as those who take 
upon themselves obligations and duties in mem- 
bership ? You know this would not be consistent 
and practical. Ah, no other institutions would 
so permit you to do, and why should you make 
the Church the exception ? Again, " There are 
people in the Church I do not like, and with whom 
I do not care to associate." Likely, but there are 
surely a greater crowd of such outside, and you 
remaining outside certainly classes vou with such ; 
besides if there are those who are evil and not 
lovable, is it not the more your duty to come in 
and by precept and example teach the better way ? 
Anyway, inconsistent outsider, suppose you can 
scrimp along, follow the soldiers in the army of 
God at a safe distance from toil, fighting and 
danger ; will you not feel a little sheepish, to come 
up after the battles are fought and the victorious 
rewards are shared, to stand by the veterans of 
the Cross, and ask for an equal share of the vic- 
tory? 

As you look about, how many persons can you 
find that have renliariidH faithful and constant in 



100 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

their Christian profession, who have not con- 
nected themselves with some church? If men in 
an army for battle in defence of their country 
must be organized, trained, disciplined and drilled 
before they can render the best service, how much 
more necessary it is that in the Church of God, 
the army of God in battling against the powers 
of sin and darkness should have this drill and 
training, that cannot otherwise be had. How 
little could a single soldier, or one unconnected 
Vx^th the regular army, ungeneraled or uncap- 
tained, accomplish; and so with the Christian 
soldier, unconnected with the Church and her 
communion fellowship, her missionary and all 
spiritual agencies accomplish ; each soldier needs 
the common encouragement, concerted action and 
all the harmonious co-operation that cannot be 
had in individual and unconnected effort. Even 
admitting that you may work in the Sunday 
School and in many of the activities of the 
Church, and accomplish much good therein, you 
can still accomplish much more if connected regu- 
larly with it; besides, you are necessarily re- 
stricted from many of the privileges of the 
Church by virtue of not being a member of it. 

Admitting that some join the Church and fall 
back and out of line, the proportion is much 
smaller than the company who try to live Chris- 
tians, without joining the Church and fall out of 
the Christian life by the way. Not only this, but 
you need the co-operation, the sympathy, assist- 
ance, and cheer that comes in thus being bound 
together by such sacred ties. How much more 
worthily you can thus sing, " Blest be the tie that 
binds our hearts in Christian love." Yes, think, 
too, of all the associated organizations and activi- 
ties of the Church you lose by not being its 
member. In the army, men are not recognized 
as soldiers or members of the army, unless they 
don the colors; why should you ask different 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 101 

from the Army of the Lord ? 

If some have lived selfish and unworthy lives 
in the Church, think how many heroic, self-sacri- 
ficing souls have suffered and even died that, so 
far as they were concerned, she should be pure, 
holy and worthy. Ah, the great Captain and 
Leader Himself gave His most precious blood for 
her. Never mind about the false ones in the 
Church ; Christ will see to them in due time ; you 
come in and do your part. Are you honestly 
afraid you will bring reproach on the Church? 
Well then, give yourself unreservedly and wholly 
to Him and He will help guide and keep you 
from falling. 



102 THE THREE CIRCLES. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE ORGANIZATIONS OF THE CHURCH. 

''Awake, azvake, put on Thy Strength, O Zion."' 
We all know that in a great manufacturing 
plant there must be engines and a vast amount of 
machinery before articles can be made and put 
on the market ; we also know that there might be 
enough equipment and organized machinery there 
to run a million-dollar plant, but if the power is 
not put on, if there is no fire in the boilers and 
no steam, the wheels, pulleys, belts, shafts, lathes 
and all the diversified parts will produce nothing. 
We know, too, that there may be a great dy- 
namo with power enough to run a whole system 
of cars in their enormous weight and demand 
for power, but if not connected with that source 
of power not a car will move. Or if the power 
breaks down cars must stop, as in our own city, 
recently, the power in some way broke down and 
a system of cars for hours could not move and 
many were left far away from home, to get there 
as best they could. 

So in the Church, organizations, departments, 
and divisions of equipment, for activities are 
necessary, and a church no more than a manu- 
facturer can produce without equipment and or- 
ganization ; yet there is a possibility of too much, 
or over-organization ; but whether too much or 
too little, nothing can be accomplished unless 
there is power and life from the great and only 
source of power, to the Church — Christ. We 
will not move and give evidence of life and light 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 103 

to others if we are not connected with the great 
dynamic source of power, no less than that of 
the Christ of God Himself; if as cited above, in 
the breaking down of a dynamo at the power- 
house; if in any way we of the Church who are 
responsible for keeping the connection between 
the Church and its source of power, neglect and 
permit a breakdown or a disconnection, can we 
expect this great receptacle of power and life to 
give light to those about us, and may we not thus 
leave many far away from their Heavenly Fa- 
ther's house? Again, we know that if we go 
into an electrically equipped church or house and 
touch a button, the connection being all right, the 
church or home is flooded with light ; and so in 
the spiritual lives of our homes and churches : if 
we are really and truly wired and connected with 
the source of light with Him who said " I am 
the light of the world ; I am the way, the truth 
and the life " ; we will not only be enlightened 
ourselves, but we will give light to all that are in 
the house or church. 

Were you ever in a circle in which a battery 
flashed its fire and power, and have you not seen 
one touch the' connection and grip, and another 
touch him until all in the room have that current 
griping them and holding them together? So 
with the power of God in home or church circle; 
if we are in touch with this power and touch 
others, the power will go on from one to another 
until all are electrified by it. We are taught that 
coal and wood in combustion for heat, and fight, 
only give out in proportion to what either has 
received from the sun in their process of forma- 
tion and growth ; can we expect to give out more 
than we are receiving from the great source of 
sunlight in God? Do we invite friends into our 
homes and drawing-rooms or into our churches 
on cold days, and provide no fire for their com- 
fort and then wonder that they do not remain? 



104 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

If we draw them into the Church with no spirit- 
ual or even social fire to warm them can we 
wonder if they are not warmed and do not re- 
main? 

We shall not dwell long upon the divisions, 
parts and offices in the Church, more than to 
simply call attention to them and reassert that 
what is needed in order that each and all might 
be effective as soul and life-giving agencies, is 
the power of the spirit of God. The pulpit first 
of all cannot be a powerful one until it is touched 
with power from the throne of God; the occu- 
pants of the pews will soon catch this power from 
him who occupies the pulpit, or make room for 
others who may. 

The prayer-meeting. Oh, the shame of its 
lack of power and life; all because they who 
should be its agency in receiving the power and 
life from God are so concerned in the things of 
time and sense, in the confusion, business and 
rush of the world that in most cases, even the 
members of the Church, will not leave business, 
social life, fashion and fancies long enough to go 
to the house of God or place of prayer that they 
may receive this power. 

As to the Sunday School, that great organiza- 
tion and blessed instrument that has been so 
wonderful an agencv in teaching and leading 
children and the young as well as older ones 
into a knowledge, love and acceptance of Christ, 
with all its grand achievements of consecrated 
superintendents, teachers and officers, winning 
countless souls for the Master; even this mighty 
and well organized institution within the Church 
is accomplishing so little in proportion to what it 
might if only filled with the life-giving power 
from Heaven. 

Again, that God-honored institution, the Chris- 
tian Endeavor Society, which has been so sig- 
nally blessed of God in the last generation 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 105 

and which is still doing much more service for 
the Master than many realize, might yet be the 
m.eans of winning the world " for Christ and the 
Church," if more souls were filled with the power 
from on high as its devoted president and many 
others of the great organization are : yes, I would 
not forget that not only the Christian Endeavor 
movement, but kindred Young People's societies, 
Baptist Young People's unions, Epworth leagues 
and others, as outgrowths or later developments, 
have also been greatly blessed and honored of 
God. If all so concerned would only tarry until 
endowed with the power from the only real source 
of power, the world for Christ might soon be 
won. 

Oh, source of power! Oh, Christ Divine, 
come in power into all these organizations in 
Thy Church. 



106 THE THREE CIRCLES. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE BENEVOI.ENCE OF THE CHURCH. 

Here, we believe, is a power for good, if prop- 
erly directed, much greater than is reahzed by 
many in the Church. While the Christian 
Church is accredited with having had much con- 
cern for the physical welfare of man, having 
given much in charity, benevolence, philanthro- 
py and in organized charities ; having visited 
and assisted more sick, poor and unfortunate 
than any other institution ; yet with all she has 
done along these lines and all the blessings she 
has received for so doing, she has often been, and 
is now, we believe, sadly remiss in her duty, in 
these important activities. A Church that exists 
in a community only to be filled, fed, supported 
and cared for by the community, is not a real 
'Church of Christ, but only a pretense and sham. 
The only right a Church should have to exist 
among the people is to bless, comfort, help and 
brighten lives. Of course, the Church must 
have membership, money, time and effort from 
those among whom it is situated, gathering of 
material, social and spiritual resources should 
only be to give them out again to those about it 
in greater need. Often these activities for the 
social and physical welfare of the people are as 
important as the spiritual activities of the Church, 
in that they often open up the way for the spir- 
itual, when otherwise the way would not be 
opened. No, the Church is not an end, but a 
means to an end; yet we should remember its 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 107 

primary object is not for the sake of ease and 
comfort for its members ; it lives to give others 
hfe ; it is not a cuddle, nor a cradle for ensconc- 
ing invalids and babies ; not a play ground, but 
rather a busy school, and active workshop, striv- 
ing hard to accomplish results for the Master. 
No, it is not a place for dress parade ; but a place 
to recruit men to gO' out and bring in other men ; 
in order to do this it must show to the commu- 
nity in which it exists that its object is its better- 
ment ; it must be so sensitive and in such close 
touch to every one in distress, poverty, sickness, 
sorrow or misfortune of any kind, that no sooner 
is such need made known than it is relieved by 
the Church, whose duty it is above all other insti- 
tutions, to relieve such want and give such as- 
sistance. 

Again, is there not something radically wrong 
in the operation of an institution ordained of 
God, and established on earth by the Son of God 
Himself, to lead men into the grandest and noblest 
manhood ; into a sacred fraternity and fellowship, 
and into a loyal loving brotherhood, that should 
contribute to and satisfy every legitimate desire 
of a perfect manhood, when these results are 
not obtained? Is all right when we see vast 
numbers of men seeking membership in lodges, 
fraternities, and benefit associations, for the 
things they desire and believe they need, that 
which cannot be found in the Church of 
God? We must conclude that either these 
men are wrong in seeking these things or 
that the Church is wrong in not providing 
them, when men who belong to the Church, 
upon meeting nights of both lodge and Church, 
attend the lodge, and thereby in fact if not in 
theory substitute the lodge for the Church, there 
must be error somewhere. When the Church 
permits her members to be watched over and 
cared for when sick and assisted and helped when 



103 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

in poverty and misfortune by these outside insti- 
tutions — many of v/hich have their existence 
throu,<^h the neglect of the Church — in the above 
named essentials she is sadly remiss in her duties. 
We do not believe it should be, and would not 
have it so, that the physical and social demands 
should receive our chief concern, but do believe 
that the Old Testament and New Testament both, 
urge the attention to these, that the higher and 
spiritual nature of man may be more easily 
reached ; that the visible . expression of love to 
God and man is best shown in his assisting his 
fellow man in kindly deeds. How suggestive 
are the following as to God's will: Ps. 41: i, 
Deut. 15: 7, Prov. 19, 17: 21-27. And do not 
most of Christ's miracles and many of His teach- 
ings lead us to the conclusion that He believed 
that often the best way to reach and restore the 
sin-sick soul was through healing and restoring 
the bodies and in ministering to the social and 
ph3^sical demands of man (Matt. 4: 23-25) 
feeding the five thousand; cleansing the lepers 
restoring the cripples ; giving sight to the blind 
unstopping deaf ears ; loosing the tongue of the 
dumb; restoring the paralytic, (see p. 69) ; heal- 
ing the woman by a touch ; the story of the Good 
Samaritan; the rich young man (see p. 95) ; in 
His blessed Gospel in Matt. 25, where he com- 
mends the ministering to the poor, sick, naked, 
hungry and the imprisoned (see p. 74) ; see John 
2: 2-1 1, Mk. 9: 2-8, John 5: 1-17, Mk. 6: 30-44, 
Lk. 17: 11-19, John 9: 1-7, Lk. 10: 16, Matt. 28. 
If this institution, the Church, so glorious, and 
instituted of God for such great work, is pro- 
ducing, in proportion with what it might, such 
meagre results, is it not high time that we, who 
profess to love it, organize and plan at once to 
change the present condition of things in the 
Church, and make it more glorious and efficient 
as a soul- winning agency in the future than it has 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 109 

been in the past, even with all its past splendid 
record; this I believe can be done; I believe it 
will be done. 

Again, it is not our purpose to condemn lodges, 
unions, clubs, guilds, fraternities, benefit orders 
and other institutions, that in many ways have 
accomplished much and have been the instru- 
ments of many blessings to humanity, but rather 
the Church, that dear, blessed institution of God, 
which more than any other should have been first 
in all these things, and in fact so prompt in them, 
that there should not have been the occasion of 
many of these other institutions ; they finding 
their only reason for existence in the lack of the 
Church. Oh, Church of God ! Awake ! take on 
the full measure of thy power! Ah, there is no 
quicker nor surer way of the Church hushing up 
carping criticism of herself in a community, than 
in showing to that community that she exists only 
to bless, cheer, and brighten it. 

We must remember that much of the charity, 
benevolence and philanthropy, individual, volun- 
tary and organized of cities, states, lodges, unions, 
etc., is indirectly due to the Church and much 
credit is misplaced along this line as to the 
Church, it being nearer in touch with the great, 
tender, sympathetic and compassionate heart of 
Christ, has created this disposition in the hearts 
of men that has manifested itself in these outside 
institutions rather than in the Church itself, the 
remissness being the greater in her creating the 
disposition and then not completing it in practi- 
cal results. Let us remember, the Church, doing 
her utmost, there will be, perhaps, those who will 
not be in sympathy with her, and who will care 
to show their benevolent and charitable disposi- 
tions in dispensing privately as need appears or 
through other institutions than the Church; in 
any event, we would not have a penny or kind 
deed withheld that would contribute to human- 



110 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

ity's need whether in the Church or not. 

CHURCH BENEVOLENCE AND BENEFICENCE. 

Oh, God ! save the Church from shrinking, 
shriveHng and dying of selfishness ; let her go 
forth on errands of mercy and missions of love 
in direct and personal contact with men ; then 
criticism and reproach of her will be embarrassed 
in the presence of loving deeds done for man in 
the name of Christ. The Church by her personal 
work in her members, in loving touch and kindly 
deeds, can love almost any man to Christ and 
into His Church. When each member of the 
Church is willing to make a personal sacrifice for 
a soul and when each member's heart throbs for 
a soul that is out of Christ and when these heart 
throbs urge the individual out of Christ to accept 
and serve Him, then will the Church be loved ; 
when this becomes the attitude of the majority of 
the members of the Church, then it will move 
upward and onward to wonderful success. 

Yes, the real and genuine Gospel of Christ 
preached and practiced must improve men in 
body, mind and soul ; it is indeed intended to bless 
all men and all of man. 

Benevolence and beneficence are Christian 
graces. — Matt, iv: 23-25. 

The real Gospel in its practical results is always 
benevolent and beneficent in that it is good news, 
to all men and all of man; Christianity is essen- 
tially a benevolent and beneficent institution. It 
has surpassed all others in its philanthropies and 
its organized and voluntary charities ; the or- 
phanages, asylums, public and private institu- 
tions, for the alleviation of suffering and misfor- 
tune, growing out of Christianity, directly and 
indirectly, are marvels and among the wonders 
of the world, when rightly understood ; it is true 
that Christ, the founder of Christianity, had for 
his final object the winning and saving of the 
souls of men, but in his perfect wisdom and' 




ONE WHO PUTS MATT. 25-36 INTQ PRACTICE 



THE TREEE CIRCLES. Ill 

knowledge of men, he knew that they coukl often 
be won through their physical betterment easier 
than they could be by the directly spiritual; that 
in order to interest man in his higher nature, he 
must be first interested in his lower, the physical ; 
hence, we see that when he was here among men 
in bodily presence, he nearly always relieved 
men's physical suiferings, and restored their bod- 
ies to their normal condition, before he attempted 
to haA^e them accept him as their spiritual Lord 
and Savior. We see also that in his healing and 
relieving of distress, it was not confined to any 
race or sect, but to all, and so should the real 
benevolence and the real Gospel be today ; it 
is now as then, with suffering humanity; it will 
not give much attention to our preaching and 
will not read our tracts, until we have fed its 
hungry stomach, clothed its cold and naked body 
and relieved it somewhat of the surroundings 
that induced its present suffering condition. 
While it is necessary to make sacrifices for the 
poor and needy, and be in readiness at all times 
to help such objects of our consideration, we 
should nevertheless be orderly about it; remem- 
bering that many things done in the name of 
charity, and with the best of motives results in 
harm to the recipients rather than good, because 
of the unsystematic and careless way in which 
it is done; it is often better to assist one to self 
support and to a manly independence than it is to 
indulge idleness and indifference, constantly re- 
ducing the spirit of independence and manhood. 
Oh, that the Church might choose as its watch- 
word for the future, " Love to God and man " ; 
in the sense of God being our common Father 
and all his children brethren of this common spir- 
itual Father. '' Which of these three, thinkest 
thou, proved neighbor to him that fell among the 
robbers ? " And He said, " He that showed 
m.ercy unto him." And Jesus said unto him. 



112 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

" Go, and do thou likewise." (See p. 79.) 

THE MINISTRY OF BROTHERHOOD. 

'' It is not possible, ordinarily, to change the 
hard conditions of those who are in life's stress, 
but it is possible to give them brotherly sympathy 
and encouragement. The cup was not taken 
away from Jesus, but an angel appeared and 
strengthened Him. No other ministry which 
human love can render, is so angel-like as that 
of him who gives cheer. Those who have 
learned this lesson are indeed ministering spirits 
sent forth to do service for the sake of them who 
shall inherit Salvation." — /. R. Miller. 

THE WORLD WOULD BE BETTER FOR IT. 
If men dealt less in stocks and lands, 

And more in bonds and deeds fraternal, 
If love's work had more willing hands 

To link the world with the supernal; 
If men stored up LOVE'S oil and wine 

And on bruised human hearts would pour it, 
If " YOUR'S " and " mine " would once combine, 

The world would be better for it. — M. H. Cobb. 

" Let us learn from the analogy in nature, the 
great lesson, that to get we must give; that to 
accumulate we must scatter; that tO' make our- 
selves happy, we must make others happy, and 
.that to get good and become spiritually vigorous 
we must do good and seek the spiritual good of 
(Others." 

SHE DID HER BEST. 
If I can live 
To make some pale face brighter, and to give 
A second lustre to some tear-dimmed eye. 

Or e'en impart 
One throb of comfort to an aching heart, 
Or cheer some way-worn soul in passing by. 

If I can lend 
A strong hand to the fallen, or defend 
The right against a single envious strain. 

My life, though bare. 
Perhaps, of much that seemeth dear and fair 
To us of earth, will not have been in vain. 

The purest joy 
Most near to heaven — far from earth's alloy, 
Is bidding clouds to give way to sunshine; 

And 'twill be well 
If on that day of days the angel tell 
Of me: She did her best for one of Thine. 

— Mildred McNeal. 




THOUGHTFUL AND PERSISTENT FRIENDS 
WHOSE FAITH PROMPTS TO NOBLE SERVICE. 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 113 

We only begin to realize the value of our pos- 
sessions when we commence to do good to others 
with them. No earthly investment pays so large 
an interest as Charity. — Jos. Cook. 

BENEVOLENCE VERSUS CHARITY. 

The greatest obstacle to charity in the Chris- 
tian Church today is the fact men spend too much 
on their table, and women so much on their dress, 
they have got nothing left for the work of God, 
and the world's betterment. — Talmage. 

OUR NEIGHBOR. 

A man must not choose his neighbor ; he must 
take his neighbor God sends him. In him, who- 
ever he be, Hes hidden or revealed, a beautiful 
brother. The neighbor is just the man that is 
next to you at the moment. This love of our 
neighbor is the only door out of the dungeon of 
self. — Geo. McDonald. 



114 THE THREE CIRCLES. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE FINANCES OF THE CHURCH. 

The problem of finance in the Church is an 
important one ; no organization that CA^er expects 
to accomphsh much will think of proceeding 
without planing wisely its finances ; it is espe- 
cially obligatory upon the part of the Church 
officials to see that the Church is properly 
financed, since it, like all other important institu- 
tions must have that wdiich is so necessary from 
the standpoint of a progressive organization. 

x\gain, in order that the Church of Christ be 
successful and progressive religiously and spirit- 
ually, it must give no evidence of being miserly, 
stingy, mean, or of anything that indicates illib- 
erality or that savors of selfishness ; yet, before 
the Church stands out in the world as an institu- 
tion, which is entirely fervent in spirit, not sloth- 
ful in business, serving the Lord, there needs to 
be much education and comprehensive instruc- 
tion. In this the Church must be urgent and 
persistent until a much-needed reform is brought 
about. 

If the Churches would be as systematic and 
businesslike as they ought to be, — and like other 
concerns that expect success ; if members and all 
interested would be as liberal, consecrated and 
devoted in this important part of God's cause 
and work as they should be, many a pastor would 
not only have a wonderful burden rolled from 
his shoulders, but would have more grace, heart 
and time for doing the things that are his special 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 115 

duties in study, preaching, visitation. He would 
have more time for prayer among his people; 
more time for evangelistic and countless other 
activities ; he should of course be wise enough 
and be able to oversee all the departments of the 
Church and their demands, no less in that of 
finance; he should be a general even here, in 
mapping out, planning and co-operating with his 
church board and officials for its financial suc- 
cess, including not only his salary, but running 
expenses, missions, benevolences and all, but not 
in " serving tables " in the sense of his having to 
bother or worry, in having to beg here and there 
of individuals or of audiences for every little, or 
even larger financial demand; in other words, lose 
his self-respect and become a financial agent or 
local beggar, for one department of the Great 
Church of Christ. A Church that so permits 
her pastor to be humiliated ought either repent of 
her sins and shortcomings, or at once make her- 
self known as an object of charity, admitting 
that the man they have been calling pastor, has 
become an authorized mendicant. 

All this I would apply to a Church which 
promises to pay its pastor a stipulated sum in 
salary, and then permits him to stint, save, worry, 
sometimes go hungry and wear seedy and glazed 
clothing, all because it has not, when it could 
have done so, paid him even that which it prom- 
ised — that often being meagre enough, which 
is often less than mail carriers, police, and the 
average shop worker receive. These vocations 
and services are certainly as honorable as the 
ministry, yet these not having spent, in many 
cases, a cent on their education and earning their 
good day's pay for five to seven years, while the 
minister in all this time and before, had to stint 
and save, and besides in many cases spend hun- 
dreds and thousands of dollars. I would not at 
all indicate that all churches do as is above sug- 



116 THE THEEE CIRCLES. 

gested, nor that all ministers are so treated; but 
it is the sad fact that many do, and far more than 
most people would think. I would not make the 
impression that many ministers are rebellious on 
account of this measured smallness on the part 
of some parishes, but would rather suggest that 
in most cases they are patiently, humbly, meekly 
and in the spirit of Christ, submitting to it, this 
making the situation the more disgraceful. In 
that " the laborer is worthy of his hire." — Jesus. 
In many parishes, if those who are well to do, 
with good incomes, salaries, finely furnished 
homes, with not only all the necessities, but many 
luxuries, could be shown how little they are 
really giving each day, week, or year out of all 
this, even in proportion to what they are spend- 
ing for luxuries, let alone necessities, they would 
be embarrassed and ashamed, or at least they 
should be. Many even who are inclined to think 
the principle of tithing or paying one-tenth of 
their income to the Lord's cause is a duty would 
find that they are actually giving less than a 
twentieth, fortieth, or fiftieth. Let me say here 
that many churches are businesslike, fair, honor- 
able, systematic, liberal, paying their pastor a lib- 
eral salary, paying it promptly, too; so that he 
like other honorable and godly men can meet 
the dry-goods merchant, grocer, butcher and 
baker frankly and fearlessly, because he " owes 
no man anything " — even the dealer before him, 
— but good will and love for him and his soul ; 
yes, there are many individuals who are liberal, 
self-sacrificing, even stinting themselves that they 
may give liberally to the support of God's cause ; 
for such churches and persons we, of course, 
have only words of praise; our desire in this is 
that some who are not so doing, reading this may 
be led to see the error of their ways and amend 
accordingly. Oh, professing Christians, if the 
" field is the world," as Jesus said, how can this 




ADVISED TO MAKE THE BEST USE OF HIS MONEY. 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 117 

field be cultivated if you do not provide cheer- 
fully and liberally out of God's bountiful gift 
and providence to you? 

As to socials, suppers, fairs, bazaars and 
entertainments, as financial agencies for the 
Church, they are not only unbusinesslike 
means, but are in the long run, hindrances 
instead of helps. Not only do such methods 
defeat the very object they wish to accom- 
plish, viz., a balance in the treasury with all 
debts paid ; but they often leave the reverse con- 
dition, of a depleted or empty treasury, with 
debts unpaid. And worse still, the moral influ- 
ence they leave in the Church and community. 
The conduct of some, — and many more than is 
often thought, — of these so-called socials, fairs, 
etc., is reprehensible, outlandish, silly and even 
wicked ; in many cases nothing short of gambling 
in its worst form, under the guise of religion or 
supporting the cause of God! How can a 
Church be self-respecting, let alone having any 
hope of religious and spiritual progress, which 
is particeps crhninis in any such clap-trap, catch- 
penny, grab-bag schemes, as many churches are 
guilty of, in wheedling money out of unwilling 
possessors. Even allowing that many of these 
fairs, socials, suppers, etc., are carried on in an 
orderly, decorous way; and where little is done 
that could be called positively wrong, or wicked, 
it is yet the fact that all such indirect methods 
are unbusinesslike, unreasonable, harmful and in 
most cases, as before suggested, leave the church 
with less money than with direct business meth- 
ods. If the pastor trusts God and the people 
sufficiently and appeals to the people through his 
officials for direct support of the cause, he will in 
nine cases out of ten receive more money thus, 
from the direct than the indirect roundabout 
methods, viz., ice cream, cake, and oyster soup 
methods, much of the money being lost in the 



118 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

soup, in its transit from the pocket to the Church 
treasury. 

The average man who attends a church sup- 
per, at 15c, — which has cost the ladies enough 
work, time, expense and often nervous headache, 
and in some cases, alas, nervous prostration, 
enough for 75 cents, — eats at least loc worth, 
leaving the ladies' net profit, after throwing away 
all their toil and vexation, of 5c, and if the man 
happens to eat 20c worth or more, leaving a loss 
of IOC — at the end of a year allowing a man will 
attend ten such suppers he will under the first 
supposition have given to the Church 50c for its 
support; and under the latter a loss of $1.00. 
Allowing that the result is usually on the side of 
profit, let an officer of the church or some sensible 
lady solicitor go to the man who attends these 
suppers, for the support of the Church at any 
given time, and suggest to him that all he need 
give would be 5c he would almost be insulted 
and of his own free will would not think of giving 
less than 25c in direct cash out of his pocket, or 
if asked for his support for the church for a 
year, he would be embarrassed in giving 40 or 50 
cents, yet this same person, after having been 
to a number of suppers, eating so much that the 
Church has actually not cleared a cent from him, 
being appealed to for support of the Church 
would arise in his dignity and tell you he had 
done all he could afford, — he had attended all 
your suppers. Of course a Church attempting 
to do away with these indirect expediences and 
schemes will need to be cautious, patient, tactful, 
prayerful. The pastor should talk it over quietly 
and sensibly with many of the laymen and offi- 
cers and quietly as possible plan the way and get 
official consent to at least try the plan — he will 
be sure to be met with the specious plea, " that 
all the churches have these things " — that of 
course not making it right — and " we have 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 119 

always done so, in this church " ; but patient per- 
sistence in the absence of pulpit ranting, or rag- 
ing about it, will finally bring about the proper 
result. He will be able always to point to a few 
churches that have tried the courageous and 
direct method vv^hich have been successful ; yes, 
I believe in socials, suppers and high-class enter- 
tainments and lectures in the church, but with no 
commercial objects whatever. I would not have 
an admission fee or a collection taken for any 
social or supper, having everything so free in the 
Church that the poorest man, woman or child in 
the community would not be kept out because 
they did not have the ten or fifteen cents. 

I would have money from pledges in amounts 
as the people felt willing to give in the weekly 
envelope system, or in quarterly or yearly pay- 
ments, and the voluntary ofifering at the Church 
service, having the people understand that the 
only support the Church has is in such a way and 
they will respond. 

Think of it ! A friend inviting a family tO' his 
home, to a social evening and supper and he at 
the door of his home taking an admission fee or 
after supper passing around the " hat " for an 
offering, and yet this is what is done at many 
church socials ; the church is only a larger family 
gathering of smaller families. A church sup- 
ported in its finances by regular weekly offer- 
ings, or other practical or definite, systematic 
ways, will secure much more money than in hap- 
hazard and unsystematic ways. 

Those giving regularly and systematically, will 
give more and feel it less, than those who give 
spasmodically and irregularly, making the sup- 
port of the church not only a matter of commer- 
cial honor, but also a matter of conscience as well, 
is a good thing, giving not only because the 
church cannot continue if it is not supported, but 
also knowing the heart of man himself not giv- 



120 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

ing, as a religious duty and privilege, will harden, 
shrink and shrivel. It is said that usually those 
who give conscientiously and liberally, are the 
most prosperous in their business and all other 
affairs of life; but if the reverse of this should 
seem to be the fact, there is yet no reason why 
the believer in the church should not give lib- 
erally, for giving is a means of grace, let it cost 
what it may in dollars and cents. Yes, benevo- 
lence has proven itself a means of grace for the 
churches that have been supported most liberally 
and conscientiously. The churches having given 
most to missions and all benevolences of the 
Church have been most progressive and success- 
ful, spiritually. 

It is not an evidence of spiritual life to see a 
church, dingy, dilapidated, unpainted and un- 
sightly either in its interior appearance and fur- 
nishings or its exterior, but rather the reverse of 
it is likely to be the condition. Financial dis- 
tress and unpaid financial obligations usually ac- 
company a church declining spiritually. 

The happiest, and most progressive churches 
in every way, are those paying all financial obli- 
gations promptly and those which are as well 
paying their vows to God ; in the very nature of 
the case no church can be very happy neglecting 
either of these essentials. 

Being orderly in our giving, we learn to save 
on little luxuries and things that we are as well 
off without and often better, and at the end of 
the year will have given more to the church and 
have more left than if we had given carelessly, 
and irregularly the same amount, not having 
economized and saved on the things that are of 
no benefit to us. Even admitting a necessary 
sacrifice, as of old so now more, they that with- 
hold a sacrifice for Christ, do not enjoy their 
withheld sacrifice, as much as those who have 
given it in the name of Christ. 



THE THREE CIRCLES. < 121 

A church that does not pay its debts is less 
honorable and less entitled to respect than a bus- 
iness or an individual not paying their debts. It 
sounds natural, does it not, to hear Paul in the 
following : '' Upon the first day of the week let 
every one of you lay by him in store," etc. As 
to Christ's attitude we see Luke 14: 12, 14. 

I do not find Moses urging the people to give 
to any schemes or fads, but a straight request for 
money for the tabernacle, and he had to restrain 
the people from over-giving ; this again later was 
repeated when funds were asked for the temple 
building ; people will give more if you trust them 
than if you mistrust and distrust them. 

"Chnrch fairs and suppers and entertainments, held for the 
purpose of paying the church's debts, are an abomination in the 
sight of God — and it is amazing they are not a stench in the nos- 
trils of all Christian people. No one valid word can be said in 
their defense. They are evil, always, wholly, irretrievably evil. 
I know how many arguments can be brought in their support, but 
this only proves that there are many Christians who are yet in tiie 
stone age of spiritual discernment. If I were the Pope of America, 
I would declare it a mortal sin for any church to raise money by 
any commercial schemes whatsoever, and any chvirch persistir)g in 
doing so should have its building sold and its name erased from 
the roll of Christian churches . How can we hope to make Chris- 
tianity even respectable so long as churches sell ice cream and 
peddle bric-a-brac in order to carry on their work? Such action 
defeats the very end for wliich the Church of God exists. The 
commercial instinctis already over-developed in the majority of 
men, and the Christian Church is the one divine institution organ- 
ized to develop the other side of human nature and to train men 
in the divine art of giving. "Lend, hoping for nothing again." 
— this is the high appeal with which the Church of God comes to 
men, and any church which lowers that standard and offers a man 
a dozen oysters or a crazy quilt in return for his contribution to 
Christian work is a stumbling block and a rock of offense. 
Imagine Jesus holding a fair ! Imagine John selling oysters that 
an additional missionary might be put in the field ! Imagine 
Paul supporting his work in Ephesus or Corinth by urging men 
to eat ice cream for the glory of God ! The mere thought of it 
causes the blood to blaze and the heart to protest. The fact tbat 
so many churches in America do these things, without realizing 
the enormity of their sin, is one of the most lamentable and ap- 
palling signs of the times. 

But some near sighted hustling saint says: "We cannot get 
along without these things !" Then shut tiie church door and 
make no further pretenses of Christian faith. What shall it profit 
a church if it gains enough money to pay its expenses, and loses 
its message and debauches the community?" — C. E. Jefferson^ 
Pastor Broadway Tabernacle, New York. 



122 . THE THREE CIRCLES. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE CHURCH IN SOCIAL AND CIVIC 
LIFE. 

SOCIAL INFLUENCE. 

The subject of the Church in social hfe is im- 
portant, in that God has created us primarily 
social beings, and we are only carrying out God- 
given instincts and natures when we cultivate the 
social life. Special importance should be given 
to the Church in its place in a social sphere and 
influence, since those who come from her will 
largely influence society for good, both directly 
and indirectly. Let us remember, also, society 
will be influenced and conditioned by those who 
come from evil institutions as well. The influ- 
ence of the Church being positive will therefore 
be stronger than that of evil institutions. 

Many persons in the social life are influenced 
for good by the direct teaching and life of the 
Church upon them ; a still greater number likely 
by the indirect and even unconscious influence. 

The Church has more respect in the community 
and in society than at first might be supposed; 
for while there are a few who will condemn the 
Church for its influence and its too strict and 
Puritanical notions as to proper conduct and life, 
deep down in their own hearts even such persons 
believe that it is right; their talk and assump- 
tions being largely to justify their own conduct, 
which is not satisfactory even to themselves. 
And again, many persons who have long since 
lost the direct influence of the Church on their 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 123 

lives and conduct, have nevertheless retained the 
indirect, though they themselves are unconscious 
of it ; the principles instilled, inculcated and im- 
planted in them by Sunday School teachers, 
preachers and others still remain to give them 
character and balance in conduct and life. 

Oh, that the Church might realize her power 
and privilege more than she does. 

Christ did not preach a Spiritual Gospel only, 
iDUt also a social one. He showed great concern 
for the physical sufferings of all those with whom 
He came in contact, and was ever ready to com- 
fort and relieve them ; certain it is that His great- 
est concern was for their spiritual sickness, and 
we find that while He usually healed the bodily 
infirmities first, He ever urged Himself upon 
their consideration as the physician of their souls. 
I believe if He were here upon earth in bodily 
presence, He would be concerned in every Social 
Settlement and in all the shops, factories, stores, 
all places where men are in toil. Yes, He would 
" go about doing good " and giving cheer, hope, 
sympathy, as He certainly does now, if we would 
but realize it. The Church in His bidding should 
do all in its power for social betterment, as well 
as Spiritual; in its life it should put into prac- 
tice its precept in '' Thy will be done on earth, as 
it is done in Heaven." The Church failing to 
see her mission and duty here, need not think it 
strange if men who ought to be within her 
fold are found in lodges, fraternities, and 
benevolent institutions, where they believe that 
from a social, humane, fraternal, and benevolent 
standpoint they are often better treated. I do 
not complain of these institutions for the good in 
many ways they are doing, yet I repeat here 
practically what I have said before, that I am 
sorry that the dear Church I love above every 
other and beyond all of these, has neglected these 
features that justly belong to her, and permitted 



124 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

these institutions to exist simply by her neglect. 
The Church should be condemned in allowing 
one of her members to be watched over when 
sick, prayed with, and when in poverty or mis- 
fortune, relieved by any one other than herself, at 
least on account of her neglect or lack of con- 
cern. If we do so neglect our duty in the Church 
let us not condemn those who do what we have 
failed to do. Ah, even better than relieving pov- 
erty and distress, should not the Church over- 
come the cause of it so far as it is consistently 
within her power to do so. 

THE CHURCH IN CIVIC INi^LUENCE. 

Here again the Church is of more significance, 
importance, and power than many are wilHng to 
admit, and often more than even she herself 
realizes. However remiss she may be in her 
duties along this line, and however much or little 
she may mean to the city and municipality, she 
might be of more consequence than she is. 

It is evident enough that when officers, coun- 
cils, and those in control of a city, however much 
they may neglect the Church and appear to care 
not for her teachings or influence, in their open 
defiance of municipal honor, of their nefarious 
schemes and " grafts," do after all regard her 
power. I notice that when ministers and 
churches take matters in hand, these schemers be- 
gin to try to justify their conduct, or at least to 
make an appearance that they are all right. 

The fact is that the influence of the Church in 
the average city life is so potent that she actually 
is in a sense, a stronger police power, in re- 
straining, subduing, overawing, teaching, guid- 
ing, directing from lives of sin to lives of Chris- 
tian and useful citizens, often exerting more 
power than the appointed, elected, or commis- 
sioned officers. It is certainly true that many 
cities are doing with a number less of police on 
account of the Church's influence, especially over 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 125 

certain classes who come from other shores, with 
wrong notions of our reUgious and civic Hfe — 
many that would be a source of much trouble and 
danger to the community, if not kept in restraint 
until they shall learn the better way. 

When it comes to the influence of the Church 
in carrying on any moral of temperance reform^ 
in a municipality, there is undoubted and unques- 
tioned power and influence given her, even by 
those who hate and fear her. 

Many cities which before were moral cesspools 
of wickedness, licentiousness, open crime, and an 
awful offense to God and man, have been reno- 
vated morally, cleaned up, refashioned, reformed, 
and purified by the effort of the churches. 

Oh, if the Church of God did but realize and 
would operate her power and influence more than 
she does, she would more nearly fulfill her mis- 
sion, in this regard at least, than she does. Oh, 
for a permanent sweep and wave of civic right- 
eousness in our cities by the Churches, 

R. E. SPEER— in C. E. World. 

The churches and the christian men and women who 
are in them are now the salt and light of our land. In 
almost any community chosen at random it will be 
found that the leading citizens, the most trusted judges, 
bankers, lawyerc, business men, and the most useful 
and respected women are in the churches. In New 
York or Chicago or Philadelphia or Boston ask, "Who 
are the two or three most representative and honored 
men in this city?" and without exception the men 
named will be Christian men who are found in the 
church, supporting its institutfons and holding its 
faith. 

Now to spread the gospel we must use the means of 
common human intercourse. The church building 
with its stated preaching service has its place on the 
one hand. Personal work in all the ordinary fellowship 
of life has its place on the other hand. 

Between the assembly and the individual is the home 
group. We have neglected a great power here. The 
gospel should be carried from home to home. In the 
apostolic time there was an institution known as the 



126 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

church in the house. That should be a unit of Chris- 
tian work and propagandism still. 

The work m a community should be carried into 
homes. Pastors and other Christians should go syste- 
matically to homes with a view to Christian work in 
these homes. Neighborhood meetings are one form of 
this activity, and pastoral work is another. But what 
is needed is an organized evangelization that will carry 
the gospel into every family circle as such, with tact, 
with continued repetition, with loving persistenice. 

The churches might launch in this way an irresisti- 
ble force. House-to-house visitation is a good thing; 
but too often it is done with a mere censuslike plan, or 
by strangers, or sporadically. This work that is need- 
ed would have to be organized. Two by two or four by 
four, men and women capable of best influencing other 
men and women would in the houses, away from the 
conventional restraint of meetings and from the easy 
indifference of individual conversation, in the sobering 
atmospher of home, where parents feel the influence of 
children's nearness and know that some day they will 
have to give account for their children to God — these 
bring the gospel and human soul into living contact. 
There are millions waiting to 'be won as soon as the 
churches set about winning them with tact and zeal 
and love. 

And work like this, levelled at saving men and wo- 
wen and children as families, would have a pov/erful 
influence on all our social life. It would bring into the 
homes of the people the spirit which would purify 
them of much frivolity and impurity a,nd vanity. We 
want the homes of the land redeemed. The churches 
alone can do it. Without such an uplifting and sober- 
ing and ennobling of our homes the best of our life is 
gone. 

Combine Against the Saloon* 

The saloon is damning each year its scores of thous- 
ands of souls and wrecking its thousands of homes. No 
Christian should be in the business. No church should 
allow any one who is in it to hold office. No Christian 
should rent property for any purpose connected with 
the curse, as saloon, office or hotel where liquor is sold. 
No Christian should knowingly sell material for the 
manufacture of liquor. If all Christians wished to do 
so, they might strike a blow at this wicked business 
which would limit its evil one-half. 

"A man can't be in business and be a Christian 
man, " young men of ten say. That is false. John H. 
Converse, Cyrus H. McCormick, S. P. Harbison, Sam- 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 127 

uel B. Capen, are honest men and Christian men. No 
one breathes a word against their character, their in- 
tegrity, their Christianity. 

The churches are not to go into politics, but Chris- 
tian men are there, and are to stay there, and there are 
enough of them now, if all of them would oppose in- 
iquity and graft and corruption, to sweep dishonest 
men and machines out of power forever. 

THE CHURCH IN THE CITY. 

If the Church 'does not Christianize and evan- 
gelize the city, the city wiU deteriorize, decivihze, 
and dechristianize until the result will be a seeth- 
ing mass of moral corruption which must finally 
bring the wrath of God down upon it in the strong 
terms possibly as applied to the ancient cities of 
the plain ^ Sodom and Gomorrah — and possibly 
the same kind of fire will consume it as consumed 
those wicked cities of the past, and the same awful 
and weird history may be their heritage, too. As 
Dr. Josiah Strong suggests, that the city means 
both the *' place and the population," many things 
come into our reckoning as to the remedies that 
shall be effectual for its betterment ; but as I have 
elsewhere urged that the real and genuine religion 
of Jesus Christ in actual operation helps the whole 
man and all of the man, I here again urge the 
same remedy for the betterment of conditions in 
the city. It must be the Church in deep and 
earnest love of God, in readiness to make any 
sacrifice, however costly in personal means and 
efforts, that is to sweeten, clean, and purify the 
city. If the " boss " and '* ward heeler " cannot 
be won to Christ, or persuaded to decently observe 
the laws ; if the city councils and those in author- 
ity and power do not enforce the laws, and con- 
tinue to trample upon the sacred and civic rights 
of its citizens, let the Church first cleanse her own 
hands and purify her own heart, and then en 
masse, or as individuals, and in all ways go forth' 
to the cleaning up of things, making the city a 
place where Christianity may be fostered and 



128 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

advanced, rather than hindered and choked. 

Let us remember that the men in collusion with, 
each other offering and accepting bribes, enrich- 
ing themselves in robbing the citizens, in the pol- 
lution of water, permitting unsafe buildings, dan- 
gerous combustibles, railroad crossings, and in 
many other v/ays endangering the bodies of the 
citizens, and trafficking in men's lives, are in the 
true sense before God, if not befor.e man, veritable 
thieves and robbers, and often more dangerous 
than the professional thieves who rob banks, 
stores, and houses in their bold and daring ways ;. 
the latter being less a menace to our civilization 
than the former, in that we can in a sense protect 
ourselves from the highwayman by carefully 
guarding and policing. The former not only rob 
in broad day, but also often under cover of law, 
such as they have made themselves for their own 
enrichment. Not only are innocent and defense- 
less citizens robbed in this way, and their bodies 
endangered, but their very souls are polluted by 
the temptations and the chicanery, resulting from 
such malicious laws, and the lax execution of even 
the better laws by those whose only object is to 
live and fatten on the labor, taxes, and sufferings 
of the helpless citizens. Oh, Church of God, 
let us arouse in our might and in the strength of 
our God, and go forth in His name as parents, 
citizens, and church members ; it is moral sui- 
cide for us to bring children into the environment 
of many of our modern cities, with its systematic 
grafting, bribery, and municipal corruption gen- 
erally; let us do our utmost in all these things 
above mentioned, that the conditions may be 
changed for the better, even if the most drastic 
measures must be resorted to, to accomplish the 
object. Oh, that many men of wealth would not 
give less to universities, colleges, libraries, etc., 
but more to the building of nice neat and comfort- 
able cottages, renting them at mere nominal 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 129 

prices, that many who are herded and crowded 
into dark, damp, foul, sunless, and sickening dens, 
fit only to breed sickness, crime and death, might 
have the privilege of getting out into clear air 
and moral atmosphere as well ; then crime would 
be greatly reduced and those who should have 
thus contributed to this blessed condition of things 
might consider themselves philanthropists and 
public benefactors indeed, and doubtless have that 
greater reward of being blessed of God. Ordinarily 
the more solid comfort we can introduce into the 
community, the more happiness and moral wel- 
fare we also bring about, as Christ in nearly all 
cases tried to help those who appealed to Him, in 
their bodily distress first, and then followed this 
with their moral and spiritual improvement. Per- 
sons will not naturally improve in the environ- 
ment and the conditions that have induced their 
condition. The home again comes in for its share 
of the responsibility, as is seen in the following: 
'' Some of us are trying so hard to make our city 
governments pure. Yet the city and the State are 
only reflections of the home. The town council 
and State Legislature have their legitimate cau- 
cus in the family circle, where the grace of God 
is invoked for the day's toil and the day's needs. 
It is useless to hope to keep our land Christian 
unless the home is Christian. Surely such an act 
of patriotism might well be shown by us all, " God 
bless our home,' as we kneel together in prayer 
in our family circles." 

What an inspiring thought! Little circles all 
over the land, all over the world, and yet all mov- 
ing together on the same orbit, all revolving 
around the sun of righteousnes ! What a fulfill- 
ment of the grand prophecy of Malachi, " From 
the rising of the sun even unto the going down of 
the same, in every place incense shall be offered 
unto my name." 



130 THE THREE GIECLES. 

The Church And the Tenement* 

BY REV. DANIEL DORCHESTER, D. D. 

(In the Christian Work.) 

One hot Sunday afternoon last summer in New York 
City, after preaching in the morning, I was riding in a 
<iar down town, and was drawn into conversation with a 
gentleman who proved to be one of the foremost philan- 
tropic and business men of that city. He asked me if 
I would like to see something of the degradation of the 
"slums," and the work that was being done for their 
amelioration. I replied, "Nothing would please me 
better." And although the heat was intense, and I 
had to preach again that evening, I tramped for three 
hours in a section fairly swarming with people, miser- 
ably housed in rickety buildings, filthy beyond descrip- 
tion, where Crime goes hand in hand with Innocence, 
and Poverty is mated with Despair. Certain districts 
in New York^have the pre-eminence of being the most 
thickly populated and having the worst tenement 
houses in the world. Bombay comes next, and Prague 
follows, while the most congested portion of London is 
only half as densely populated as these sections of New 
York. There are houses in New York packed almost 
beyond belief with human beings. No ray of sunlight 
ever comes into them; fever has a perennial lease. 
Every story is stained with crime, and nearly every 
room is the grave of decency and morality. Innocent 
Childhood and gray haired Vice, maidenly Purity and 
foul-mouthed Depravity, the sons of God and the sons 
of Satan, are in one living burial blent. 

A thousand years ago, it is said, the Norsemen came 
up Boston Harbor in shallops every one of which had on 
its sail a painting of a cormorant raven and at its prow 
a wolf's head. So there are coming up in all our cities 
the children of a vicious ancestry and more vicious sur- 
roundings. If we could read the tendencies living in 
their blood we should see these two ensigns, the raven 
of crime, thirsting for indulgence, and the wolf of an 
ignorant, lazy poverty, ever leading the way into paup- 
erism. The stream of wretchedness is continually 
pouring into society, and the church and other philan- 
thropic agencies are doing noble work in alleviating it, 
but the fountain, the overcrowded tenement honse, is 
continually generating more misery. 

There is one thing upon which all the students of 
social science are agreed, namely, that such tenement 
houses as exist in the most densely populated portions 
of our cities are the most prolific sources of the evils 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 131 

that vex and debase society. Some contend that the 
saloon, with its baleful influences, renders an import- 
ant social service; there is another vile institution 
which is believed by some to be a necessary evil; but I 
have yet to hear or read of anything but condemnation 
for the tenement house. 

Jacob Riis, writing in reference to New York City, 
says: 

"In the tenements all the influences make for evil 
because they are the hot beds of the epidemics that 
carry death to rich and poor alike; the nurseries of 
pauperism and crime that fill our jails and police courts, 
that throw off forty thousand human wrecks to the 
island asylums and work houses through the year; that 
turned out in the last eight years a half a million beg- 
gars to prey upon our charities; that maintain a stand- 
ing army of ten thousand tramps, with all that that 
implies; and because above all, they touch the family 
life with deadly moral contagion." 

A French writer says: "The tenement house stands 
for the exasperation of one part of society against the 
other." This is the most serious phase of the subject. 
The degradation of the slums is dreadful beyond the 
power of man to estimate, but it is not so terrible as 
that bitter feeling, rankling in the hearts of thousands, 
that there is something wrong in the constitution of so- 
ciety, in which a few live like princes and many like 
beasts. The submerged many seldon reason correctly, 
but they see the frightful contrasts between luxury and 
wretchedness; their imaginations are inflamed, and they 
are goaded by hunger to resentful feelings, which are 
a constant menace to society. These discontented 
masses are all the more dangerous because they are 
partly right in their contention. They have their own 
improvidence and intemperance to blame for their mis- 
ery, but many were born to misery; their surroundings 
crushed their self-respect; their was nothing in their 
homes to inspire ambition or thrift, and in most cases, 
no training to get an honest living. 

The very growth of the city, the increase of popula- 
tion of which we are so proud, has added to their bur- 
dens. Land increases in value, rents are advanced, and 
as a consequence, the poor, who have to live near their 
places of employment, are crowded into smaller quart- 
ers, and are obliged to pay more for what they have. 
The humble tenement house, where one or two fami- 
lies used to live, becomes the abode of several families. 
Then houses and blocks are converted into barracks, 
which are constructed without any regard to the safety 
and comfort of the tenents. They begin the custom of 



132 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

underleting, and the middleman or agent appears. 
Nothing now stands between greed for rent, which in 
many well authenticated cases is as high as thirty per 
cent., on the defenseless inmates. The sunlight is 
shut out, the foul air is shut in, and the fouler moral 
atmosphere engendered by so many persons of both 
sexes and all ages living without partition or screen in 
one room. 

Mr. Riis declares that, "as a class, the tenants are 
bettter than the houses they live in. They respond 
quickly to improved conditions." In Pittsburg, when 
its magnificent court house was completed, a little girl 
used to come every day from the slums to look with 
wondering admiration upon its noble arches and aspir- 
ing towers she wandered up and down it corridors, 
gazed with eager interest upon its majestic halls and 
handsome furnishings; and every night went Jiome to 
her dismal attic refreshed. A new life was quickened 
within that child, a new impulse was created, and she 
yielded to the invitation of a kind hearted woman to go 
to school, although she had spurned all such offers be- 
fore. Let us remember that environment has a much 
greater influence upon human endeavor and achieve- 
ment, than we commonly think. 

THE CHURCH IN STATE AND NATION. 

The question of '' Church and State " has been 
an interesting one for centuries, and doubtless will 
be for many more. Whatever may be the final 
outcome of it all, we are unable to say or even 
suggest, but will say that it is evident to all who 
will think and reflect upon what history records 
of the Church's influence, in her efforts not only 
to organically connect herself with the State, but 
to dominate, direct and control, from a moderate 
degree to that of an absolute control, that some- 
thing of good and much of harm has resulted. If 
the Church was absolutely perfect and her mem- 
bers composed of pure and perfect men, with un- 
erring judgment, then we could more reasonably 
urge her more direct control of the State, but be- 
lieving that anything like perfection in the Church 
and in the judgment of her membership is quite 
a distance in the future, I would believe that the 
Church can accomplish more good by her indi- 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 133 

rect, active influence than by the organic and 
direct. It is certainly better and more effectual 
for her to educate, train, discipline, purify and 
make her membership as loyal and Christlike in 
their lives as it is possible, training, disciplining, 
inculcatini?; and instilling into the minds of the 
young especially, the blessed life of Christ, so that 
the future membership of the Church may be so 
pure and so loyal to the Spirit of Christ that she 
may recreate a respect and reverence for herself 
so strong that no rulers, or officers of State and 
nation, or lawmakers, would dare go in defiance 
of her conscientious desires. So strong she 
should be in moral stamina and religious convic- 
tions that when one of her members, not as a sect, 
or of a given Church, but of the Church of Christ 
as a whole, stood up as a ruler, lawmaker or 
executor of the law, he should represent in his 
life and action not onlv the honor of the Churchy 
but his own as well, which would be no less than 
his accountability to Almighty God. 

We see quite clearly, do we not, that our privi- 
lege in this way of influencing the State and na- 
tion toward the highest moral and religious 
standard and conduct is ever so much greater than 
by direct and more self-concerned connections. 

Some wars have occurred and others have been 
prevented, in the one case because the Church's 
influence was not used and exerted as strongly as 
it might have been, and in the other because this 
influence was exerted and potent. More than we 
think are the ears of men and nations to the 
ground listening to what the Church has to say. 

In the future more than ever she is to be the 
arbiter of peace. May God hasten the day " when 
the kingdoms of this world shall become the king- 
doms of our Lord and His Christ," and when 
nations shall know war no more. 

The following is a quotation from '^ New 
Era," as there quoted by Dr. Josiah Strong : 



134 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

THE CHURCH IN THE STATE. 

" The State and municipality differ from the 
Church in this, that whereas the Church says ' you 
ought/ the State says ' you must.' Of course the 
Church has and ought to have authority in the 
administration of her internal affairs, but she 
should have no authority whatever over public or 
over any individual outside her own institutions. 
Beyond her own walls, let the Church have un- 
bounded influence, but not one iota of authority. 
She has much influence now, and ought to have 
infinitely more. That influence ought to extend 
to everything that concerns the kingdom of her 
Lord, and what does not? To executives, to 
legislative bodies, to corporations, to trades 
unions, to classes, to society as a whole, and to 
individuals — to all these the Church has a right 
to say, ' you ought,' and she should be able to 
say it v/ith such cogency of reason and such 
obvious purity of motive as to carry public opin- 
ion with her, and thus mould the entire life of the 
community." 

CHURCH AND LABOR. 

When the Church really grasps the thought 
that she is misunderstood by a large proportion of 
the laboring class, and when she goes to work 
in dead earnest, led of Christ, to dismiss this preju- 
dice, and tries to show her deep and vital inter- 
ests in these men's bodies as well as their souls, 
she will have done a great work for society and 
the laboring man, and as a result of it all, the 
cause of Christ in his Church and in the world 
will be greatly blessed. 

Some will doubtless urge that the Church is 
misunderstood and often misrepresented, which 
doubtless is the fact ; yet she is more in true sym- 
pathy with the toilers than is commonly believed. 
Admitting all this to be true, it still remains the 
duty of the Church, directed of Christ, to take 
the initiative in bringing about a better state of 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 135 

affairs, and a different feeling from that which 
now exists. It is simply unfortunate that when 
the real source of strength and power of the 
Church is largely from among the so-called 
" common " people, that these very persons and 
this element should misunderstand and be mis- 
tmderstood. There is something radically wrong 
when labor organizations, unions, clubs, etc., 
gathered together in conferences and conventions, 
honor and revere the name of Christ and at the 
same time complain of the Church for not truly 
representing Him. As has been suggested, if the 
Church is thus rig^htly condemned, she should at 
once go on her knees in deep contrition for her 
sin and neglect, and seek God's forgiveness, 
promising when forgiven of the past, to go forth 
in the future to a more fraternal and brotherly 
effort for those who so much need this life that 
can better be communicated through the Church 
of Christ than in any other way. Possibly the 
Church has been in error often, not in urging our 
love to God too much, for this could not be possi- 
ble, but rather in not urging our love for our 
fellow man enough. These are the two great 
and basal principles of the true kingdom of God 
on earth, and if the first is properly urged and 
understood it will follow naturally in the second 
and manifest itself in the Church, society, in 
labor, and in all the world. As Dr. Josiah Strong 
wisely says, '' It is a blunder to separate religion 
and philanthropy." 

The Church's Duty to Lahof . 

Having been requested to make a statement as to 
what working men expect from the church, I would 
say that it is scarcely possible to refer more than briefl. , 
to these matters within the bounds of a limited articley 
such as this must necessarily be. The men and wo- 
men who work long hours every day, and often for 
seven days in the week, have not time to go to church. 
It was only recently that the representatives of a large 



136 THE THREE CIRCLES. 



corporation appealed to me to prevent a strike of their 
employes because the men wanted to insist upon Sun- 
day observance— Sunday rest. While there is still 
quite a large number of working people who toil on 
Sundays, it is due to the organization of labor more 
than any other one feature that there is less Sunday 
work than formerly prevailed. 

We are not told what the Man of Nazareth received 
in wages when he toiled at the carpenter's bench, but 
surely the experience gained there was the preparation 
which best fitted him for the following years of his 
ministry. As he went up and down the hills of Galilee 
preaching the gospel of helpfulness, of love, of healing 
and sympathy, so now would the working men have the 
ministers of the church, founded in his name, go out 
and preach their needs, in sympathy not for, but with 
them. Here are some of the things the working men 
want from the church: 

BETTER UNDERSTANDING ASKED 

First of all, when undertaking to discuss the labor 
question, they want the church to get the laborer's side 
of that question rather than the side that represents 
the opposition. The difficulty is that our friends, the 
ministers, take cognizance of the existence of the labor 
movement, when as a matter of fact, the strike or lock- 
out is contrary to the real merits of the controversy. 

If the Church wants the men who labor to return to 
it, it must show that it is in sympathy with the work- 
ing men. The working men want to feel that in their 
needs the Church stands for them;that it will stand for 
them when opposition confronts them, when bitterness 
antagonizes them, when hunger steps in through their 
doors and when all the world would pour contumely 
upon their heads. As a matter of fact, there are too 
few ministers of the gospel who take an interest in the 
real lives of the wage-earners, their real sufferings, 
their real needs; and as a result, the clergy form a 
habit of often talking down patronizingly to the work- 
ing men, by attitude of mind and soul which the latter 
are not slow to recognize. 

The workingmen want light— the light that will 
throw sunshine into their homes; not merely spiritual 
sunshine, but light that will give them better comforts 
in their lives today. They are tired of praying for the 
"sweet by-and-by" all the time, and enduring the bit- 
ter now. They want something here. "Thy will be 
done on earth as it is in heaven' ' they want fulfilled on 
earth, and not to wait until they go heaven. 

HELP IN INDUSTRIAL REFORM DESIRED. 

The working men want the church to proclaim from 



THE THREE CIECLES. 137 



all its pulpits and institutions, not only the gospel of 
"the poor ye have always with you" and the charity 
which will relieve their immediate necessities, but the 
right and the imperative need that the working people 
should organize and unite their efforts to secure better 
conditions, which will do more than ought else to pre- 
vent the possibility of the "poor" being always with us. 
They want the church to preach more the charity 
that advocates and fights for laws] upon our statue 
books (and the enforcement of those laws) which will 
prevent the employment of young children, and secure 
improved conditions in unsanitary workshops, factor- 
ies, mills and mines; better lien laws; liability of em- 
ployers for "accidents" to workmen due to negligence, 
greed or parsimony of employers; the abolition of 
"truck stores;" less burdensome hours of work and at a 
fair wage, and other improvements in the conditions of 
labor too numerous to mention here. The working 
men prize that charity, rather than the charity of car- 
ing for the human wrecks resulting from the absence 
of such laws. 

AID TO TEMPOEAL BETTERMENT NEEDED. 

The working men want the church to preach the 
gospel and the right of man to "life, liberty and the 
pursuit of happiness" — the right not merely to main- 
tain that life, but the opportunity for better homes, 
better surroundings, higher education, higher aspera- 
tions, nobler thoughts, more humane feelings, and all 
the human instincts that go to make up a manhood 
that would be free and independent, loving and noble, 
true and sympathetic. 
V7orking men want the sympathy of the church not only 
in their spiritual but temporal welfare. If there be any 
people anywhere who have some excuse for being wrong 
it is the working man, for they have been deprived of 
the opportunities for education and refinement and the 
advantages which come to all others in society. When 
they err, as a matter of judgment, they do not want 
the chidings of the church and the attempt to place 
them in the wrong, but they want sympathy and loving 
advice, so that they may correct the error and proceed 
on the right road. — Samuel Gompers, in Congregation- 
alist. 



138 THE THREE CIRCLES 



CHAPTER VIL 

THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD AND IN HEAVEN. 

" The Field is the World." — Jesus. 

Since God sent His only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believing in and accepting Him might 
be saved, and as Jesus Himself says the world 
is His field, and since He commissioned His dis- 
ciples to go as missionaries and win the world to 
Him, that commission to His Church and every 
true member of it holding good today, and as 
good as it did on the day when He so directed His 
disciples, it is incumbent upon the Church and 
every true and loyal disciple of Christ to go forth 
in smaller and local fields at home, or away from 
home, and in heathen lands, for the evangeliza- 
tion of the world. If professed followers of the 
Christ were properly impressed with this fact 
and this wonderful privilege, the Church would 
move forward in leaps and bounds toward the 
•great and happy day in which the whole world 
shall be redeemed and saved, that day in which 
all the earth, with every language of men trans- 
lated into an universal and angelic dialect, shall 
sing the grand old Coronation song, '' All Hail 
the Power of Jesus' Name." 

Oh, that we shall not only sing " Onward, 
Christian Soldiers," out that the Church of God 
may soon move on with such irresistible sweep, 
force and power that the kingdoms and powers 
of Satan and darkness may tremble and fall be- 
fore the advance of this invincible army of the 
Lord, vv^hen the captain is the Lord Himself, and 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 139 

His followers march and shout a battle cry — " in 
the name and strength of Christ and Him cruci- 
fied we come," 

THE CHURCH IN HEAVEN. 

Oh, for that blessed day when the Church of all 
ages shall have had her robes washed and made 
perfectly white in the blood of the Lamb, when 
she gathers all the redeemed into that upper and 
final sanctuary and temple in Heaven for wor- 
ship and praise, in Whose presence all the re- 
deemed Church of God shall acclaim, " Holy, 
Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty." Ah, yes, 
when we are where Sabbaths never end and 
where congregations ne'er break up. Dear home 
of the Church : we long for that day when your 
last struggle on earth is over, when she shall be 
attuned of Thee, dear Lord, and sing a harmoni- 
ous and accordant song in praise of the Father, 
Son, and Holy Spirit, forever and forever. 

Worship and Service. 

"Adoration at the Throne, activity in the Temple, 
the worship of the heart, the worship of the voice, the 
worship of the hands — the whole being concentrat- 
ed and devoted to God — Those are the services of the 
upper Sanctuary. Here the flesh is often wearied with 
an hour of worship. There they rest not day and night 
saying, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which 
was and is and is to come. ' Here a week will often 
weary us in well doing. They are drawn on by its own 
deliciousness to larger and larger fulfillments of Jeho- 
vah's will. Here we must lure ourselves to work by the 
prospects of rest hereafter. There the toil is luxury, 
and the labor recreation; and nothing but jubilees of 
praise and holidays of higher service are wanted to di- 
versify the long and industrious Sabbath of the skies." 

Songs in Heaven. 

1. If music be so very sweet, 

While here we plod alongr. 
What must it be when onr tired feet 
Shall tread the Shore of Song % 

2. If Christian fellowship can bind 

Our hearts in bonds of love, 
What may it not be when we find 
Ourselves at home, above ? 



140 THE THREE CIRCLES. 



3. If here we take delight in prayer, 

And love God's throne of grace, 
Then may we long, without a fear, 
To meet Him face to face. 

4. 'Tis said, perhaps it may be true, 

"Prayer ends with earthly days ; 
Or, rather, that it flows into 
One ceaseless song of praise." 

5. When we shall tread the shore of song. 

Where music ever rings ; 
When we shall join the radiant throng 
And see the King of kings. 

6. Then shallfthe worth of prayer be shown, 

The soul of song be given. 
And sweetest fellowship be known 
To all who're safe in Heaven. 




THIS MAN RECEIVING SOMETHING 
MORE AND BETTER THAN HE EX- 
PECTED. 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 141 



The Heavenly Circle. 

OR 

THE IMMORTAL LIFE. 
CHAPTER I. 

Text: Job 4: 14 — "If a man die shall he live 
again? " 

UNIVERSAL BELIEF IN THE IMMORTALITY OF THE 
SOUL. 

From all we can learn in the annals and rec- 
ords of ancient nations and peoples it is evident 
that the idea and belief in the immortality of the 
soul — that the end of this physical and earthly 
existence is not the end of man's real and soul ex- 
istence — was an inherent one and was one of 
the strongest and most potent beliefs in the 
human mind, stirring it to actions, inquiry and 
investigation in this important problem of the 
race. 

The great heart cry and question of Job, '' If 
a man die shall he live again ? " was simply the 
refrain of the inquiring song of the centuries, 
that had been sweeping along its burden of hu- 
manity with its load of passions and soul yearn- 
ings. 

Humanity has and ever will urge the question, 
Is man immortal? Will ever demand until the 
final answer is given of God Himself, is there, 
at the end of this life, an evermore or a never- 
more ? 



142 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

This idea and belief in immortality and the 
soul future and eternal existence has swept down 
the centuries with ever increasing momentum, 
and with ever added grip and power in the human 
mind in its convictions and conclusions, until it 
is as irresistible in its rush as the current of a 
mightily flooded river ; as deeply implanted as 
the mountains m their places in the earth ; as 
surely held in the human reason as the seas are 
held in their places by Him who rules and gov- 
erns all. Yes, it is as constant in the human 
heart as the surge and the swelling of the tides. 

In the early dawn and infancy of the race and 
of human experiences the conclusions and ideas 
as to the detail and activities of the future life 
were indeed confusing, mysterious and so gro- 
tesque that we in these ages smile in reflecting 
upon them. Yet with all the darkness there 
were now and then rays and glints of sunshine, of 
reason and revelation, shining through the clouds 
with hope foretelling the days in which God 
would answer these yearnings and inquiries in a 
flood of perfect light from no less a source than 
from the sunlight of God himself in Heaven. 

TESTIMONY OF MEN. 

Poets, philosophers, statesmen and the great- 
est in all departments of life have contributed 
their testimonies to their belief in the immortality 
of the soul, and have also given many conclusive 
arguments in support of their convictions and 
conclusions. 

Who can read the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer 
and not conclude that his great .poetic mind and 
soul was inspired in anticipation of a future life, 
and that he, together with others of that stirring 
a,sre, was not to live again. 

Who can follow the teachings of the great 
philosopher Socrates, especially in his later in- 
structions to his young students and pupils about 
Athens and not be convinced that the idea of a 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 143 

life beyond with him was not a passion? Even 
at the very end of his Hfe, in those tragic mo- 
ments after his condemnation, in his drinking" 
the deadly poison, his mind was more calm and 
serene than those about him, for he had the un- 
doubted assurance of another life, and one that 
would vindicate his life and teachings in this. 
How we sometimes regret that so sublime and 
noble a soul could not have lived in the days of 
Christ's earthly lite. How willingly would he 
have espoused the doctrines of Him above all 
philosophers, and as willingly would he have 
marched to the burning stake or in the arena 
of wild beasts, to be devoured by them for love 
of so great a teacher. Ah ! Can we not reason- 
ably believe he was a forerunner of those who 
did so give their lives ? 

And again who can follow the sublime and 
philosophic mind and soul of Plato, the successor 
and student of Socrates, in reasonings and con- 
clusions and doubt that he, too, was assured that 
the great passions and longings of the human 
mind and soul should not end with the close of 
life on earth. A part of this is evidenced in his 
memorable thankfulness, especially for three 
things, viz. : That he was a Greek and not a 
Barbarian ; that he was permitted to live in the 
time of Socrates, his great teacher, and that he 
had a rational and immortal soul. 

And again, when we study the reasonings and 
conclusions of a mind like that of Aristotle, who 
was less poetic than Socrates and Plato and more 
inchned to have his position mathematically and 
less ideally proven, we find, too, that he, with 
other great thinkers, arrives at the conclusion 
that there is more of reality in man's life than 
what is seen of it in a more earthly existence. 

Hear what Cyrus, the great Persian king, has 
to say in addressing his children : " No, my 
dear children, I can never be persuaded that the 



IM THE THREE CIRC^LES. 

soul lives no longer than it dwells in this mortal 
body, and that it dies on separation ; for I see that 
the soul communicates vigor and motion to mor- 
tal bodies during its continuance in them. 
Neither can I be persuaded that the soul is di- 
vested of intelligence on its separation from this 
gross, somber body, but it is probable that, when 
the soul is separated, it becomes perfect and en- 
tire, and is then more intelligent." 

Once more read the doctrines and teachings of 
the " Church Fathers " and the earlier theologians 
of the Church, among them Athanasius, Iranseus 
and Augustine, and you will find them not only 
convincing in their arguments and conclusions 
as to the future life, but maintaining their ideas 
as vigorously as they did their doctrines and 
teachings in other directions, and reasonably so, 
too, for with the failure to so prove the life 
beyond most of their other teachings would fail. 

IMPORTANCE OF THE QUESTION AND PROBLEM. 

If life in the world is so dear and sweet to men, 
that with all its multiform perplexities, confu- 
sions, sorrows, sufferings, failures, mysteries and 
questionings, they still cling to it so tenaciously 
is not the thought of a future life with all its 
anticipated activities, felicities, harmonies and 
eternity — a thousand-fold more important? 

Some might ask, if there is so much assurance 
of another life, why this clinging so to this one? 
We answer that, one reason for our holding on 
to this life is from the soul and body being so 
closely associated for years in associations and 
habits that we dread and fear the shock and sep- 
aration as we do the going under the influence 
of an anaesthetic for an operation on the body; 
we are pleased in the anticipations of a cured 
deformity of the body, yet we dread the tempo- 
rary suspense of animation and consciousness 
during the operation. 

Another might ask why is the veil not lifted; 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 145 

why is the scroll not rolled up or aside that hides 
our view of the future, and why must we look 
through so much haze and mystery as to our 
future life? 

If we think a moment we will see that an all- 
wise God could not so permit us to see into the 
future, for those who should see so much felicity 
would be in too great haste to go beyond this Hfe, 
and thus be unfitted for their calm and undis- 
turbed work for their Master here, and those 
seeing so certainly their sorrows and infelicities 
in another world would be so desperate that their 
lives here would be in utter confusion. 

This question and problem is important, in 
answer to the great passions of the souls of men. 
Ah ! If there is not to be another life why these 
strong attachments and loves? Why permitted 
to cherish so dearly our loved ones if all these are 
to be snuffed out and forever annihilated, and if 
we are never to be permitted to meet or know 
each other again? 

Can we conclude that the whole of life is com- 
prised in these few fleeting years between the 
cry at birth and the sob and wail in death ? Cer- 
tainly the only answer to it all is in God and in 
His dear son Jesus Christ, and all these questions 
and mysteries shall be fully revealed and made 
known to us when we awake in His likeness and 
see Him as He is. 

We can come to no other reasonable conclusion 
than that God implanted these anticipations and 
soul-longings for another life in us and, if so, 
there is no other sensible conclusion than that He 
will answer them all in His own best way and 
time. 

Otherwise God would trifle with the souls of 
men. God cannot trifle and therefore these God- 
implanted passions must and will be answered in 
the sweet bye and bye. God, who breathed into 
man the breath of life at the beginning will re- 



146 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

breathe it in the future and eternal life in bodies 
imperishable and eternal. 

IMMORTALITY. 

" The insect bursting from its tomb-like bed — - 
The grain that in a thousand grains revives — 
The trees that seem in wintry torpor dead, 
Yet each new year renewing their green lives, 
All teach, without the added aid of faith. 
That life still triumphs o'er apparent death. 

" But dies the insect when the summer dies. 
The grain hath perished, though the plant remains;: 
In death, at last, the oak. of ages lies. 
Here Reason halts, no further can attain. 
For Reason argues but from what she sees. 
Nor traces to their goal these mysteries. 

" But faith the dark hiatus can supply — 
Telling (as these things aid her to espy) 
Teaching, eternal progress still shall reign; 
In higher worlds, that higher laws obtain, 
Pointing, with radiant finger raised on high, 
From life that still revives to life that cannot die." 

— Aiion^ 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 147 



CHAPTER 11. 

MAN'S NATURE DEMANDING A FU- 
TURE LIFE. 
Text: I. Corinthians, 15: i^, 26. 

NATURE OF THE SOUL AND ITS HOUSE OR TEMPLE. 

We have seen, in the preceding chapter, that 
all nations and nearly all men have concluded 
that there is a future life and that the soul is im- 
mortal, yet as to what this future life is like has 
been so strangely commented upon that it is 
not strange that the soul itself in its nature 
should cause much speculation and argument. 
Some, insisting that its constituency is a subtle 
air, others that it is the essence of the spirit, but 
whatever may be the conclusion as to the nature 
of the mind and soul it seems evident that, while 
the body is closely associated with the soul, there 
is, nevertheless, a separation in what we call 
death, and that this house we live in — our body 
— is useless, as it is now constituted, for future 
existence or for the habitation of the soul. 
Whatever may be our conclusions as to the soul's 
association with a body in another life we cer- 
tainly insist that there shall be a development of 
mental and soul power in the future life. If a 
healthy mind in even an earthly body continues 
to improve, learn, grow, can we not conclude 
that the growth and progress in a more perfect 
sphere will be more marked and perfect ? If our 
intellectual and soul powers do not develop and 
grow constantly, it is an evidence that they are 
unhealthy and not normal. 



148 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

Yet, however unworthy or temporal the body 
seems to be to us in comparison with the mind 
and soul, let us remember that this body of ours 
is not an insignificant, cumbersome, unworthy 
and useless thing. First it is of importance be- 
cause it is a gift of God in creation, and that 
it is most convenient to our nature and His pur- 
pose, or He would not have given it to us. 
While it may not be the best for us in another 
sphere, or the one He has planned for us, it is 
nevertheless the best for His purpose in this 
mundane existence of ours. 

Again, we find we are fearfully and wonder- 
fully made, that the mechanism, the dehcate 
parts, the perfect articulation of part to part in 
pore, muscle, ligament, brain, nerve, blood, etc., 
has been a marvel and a wonder to the greatest 
thinkers of the ages. Admitting that we will 
have another and a better in the next life we 
would scarcely know what to do without the one 
we have in this life, that we so commonly com- 
plain of, one so frequently abused and misused 
by us. 

What a privilege it is, when we stop and think 
of it, that we desire or will a thing or action, 
that we. have such an obedient servant as the 
body, with its manifold possibilities, in its varied 
parts, to respond to that desire or will. How 
happy the adjustment of the five senses to this 
will of ours in hearing, feeling, seeing, tasting, 
smelling. How constantly we are using these 
senses and how readily we manipulate these fac- 
ulties and this complex mechanism in one or all 
of its parts, and yet stop so seldom to thank our 
God and creator for all. 

MAN MIND NOT MATTER. 

Again, to make more clear the fact that man 
is constituted of mind not matter, let me quote 
from the great Bishop Butler. '' It does not ap- 
pear," says the bishop, '' that the relation of this 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 149 

gross body to the reflecting being is in any degree 
necessary to thinking; to our intellectual enjoy- 
ment or sufferings ; nor, consequently, that the 
dissolution or alienation of the former by death 
will be the destruction of those present powers 
which render us capable of this state of reflec- 
tion." And he cites the following most interest- 
ing illustration in a young man entering into the 
active and vigorous duties of life : 

" First one knee refused its oflice and, as this 
was accompanied with great pain, and perhaps 
the nature of the complaint was mistaken, the leg 
was amputated in the hope that the evil would 
stop there. But the disease soon passed into the 
other limb, stiffened the remaining knee and then 
crept slowly on. from joint to joint, making each 
inflexible as it passed, till the whole lower portion 
of the body was nearly as rigid as iron and the 
muscles no longer had any office to perform. 

" Gradually, then, it moved upward, leaving 
the vertebral column inflexible. The arms and 
hands, which, in anticipation of its approach had 
been bent into a position most convenient for the 
sufferer, stiffened there ; the neck refused to turn 
or bend and the body became almost as immov- 
able as if it had been carved out of the rock. 
Years passed between the first appearance of this 
awful disease and the completion of its awful 
work. Years elapsed after the hapless patient 
was thus hardened into stone, and still he lived. 
Nor was this all. His eyes were attacked; the 
sight of one was wholly lost and the other became 
so exquisitely sensitive that it could seldom be 
exposed to the light and never but for a few 
moments at a time. And thus he remained for 
years, blind, immovable, prisoned in this house 
of stone and echoing, we might suppose, the 
affecting exclamation of the apostle, ' Who shall 
deliver me from the body of this death ? ' But 
no word of impatience escaped him. The mind 



150 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

was clear and vigorous ; the temper was not 
soured; the affections were as strong and cling- 
ing as ever. It is said he often suffered pain, 
but in the intervals of distress his active mind 
sought and found employment, and numerous 
contributions, which this Living Statue dictated 
for a periodical, are now in print. And what, 
he asks in conclusion, says the materialist to this ? 
Was that powerless body, maimed, stiffened, 
blind, hardly animative — :was that the person, 
the man, still active, inquisitive, industrious, gen- 
erous and affectionate, or was it only a prison 
house in which the fettered soul was compelled 
to await its time of release ? I envy not the feel- 
ings of the intellect of him," he continues, " who 
could stand by the bedside of that patient sufferer 
and still disbelieve that ' there is a spirit in man, 
and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them 
understanding? ' " 

How can we conclude otherwise than that 
man is composed of mind and spirit and not of 
matter? Wonderful, useful and as necessary 
as the body is to this life, we want different and 
better ones for the next and the perfect one. We 
want one that will not stiffen or soften, ache, 
suffer, decay, collapse and perish. 

Ah, yes, we desire a body whose eye will not 
dim, whose hands will not lose their cunning, 
whose ears will not deafen to the sweet strains of 
immortal songs. If we are ravished and en- 
chanted in the harmonious strains from even im- 
perfect songs and instruments of man ; if we are 
spell-bound in the springtime, with the carols of 
the songsters of the air ; if the sublime and won- 
derful panorama of nature at times even in this 
house of clay and suffering so enrapture us, what 
must be the bliss of our souls in a perfect world 
with perfect forms for perfect souls? What are 
these beautiful dreams and imaginations, yearn- 
ings and anticipations, but invitations to our souls 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 151 

to stir them to the utmost preparation in time for 
the bliss of eternity? Men of God, who have 
searched in science, philosophy, astronomy, geol- 
ogy, chemistry and alchemy — giving God the 
credit for all they have found in this marvelous 
world of His — will find the answer to all their 
search and inquiry when they awake in His like- 
ness in a perfect world. 

WHY THIS MIND AND SOUL QUEST IF ETERNITY 
IS NOT ITS ANSWER ? 

Ah, can we think for a moment that these 
great passionate, intelligent souls must stop 'their 
inquiry, their desires, their soul's satisfaction, 
and never live again in another world to continue 
on their joy in learning the deep things of God in 
a more perfect environment ? Never. God most 
surely does not so create these great souls only 
to mock and destroy them. Who does not desire 
and hope for a land where aspirations are not 
unsatisfied, where hope has its full fruition, 
where time does not crowd or frighten us, in fact 
a place where there is no time, but all eternity ; 
where there is no death, no setting sun, no fading 
flowers? Is it not well that we leave these sor- 
did cares of earth now and then and lift our 
spirits on wings of faith and hope and allow our 
souls a little intoxication in anticipations of the 
coming perfect joys ? 

Can we believe that God would create beings 
in his own image and likeness, with passions and 
soul-longings, and sit off in the heavens and look 
down upon us in our confusion of mixed joys 
and sorrows and laugh at us when He could help 
us, mock our hopes and longings for the future 
by snuffing out our lives and then create other 
lives and play with and mock them? Ah, it is 
inconceivable. Can we conceive of a God who 
will give us a task to do, that cannot be done in 
time, and then give us no eternity to do it in? 
Does he give us imperial minds and then only 



152 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

such expansion as the soul on earth is permitted 
to have? Yes, man is only writing the preface 
page of his life in this world. The next, is where 
real life begins. And the chapters will not close 
in sorrow but they will go on, never closing. We 
are certain that no one ever reaches his ideal and 
the height of his standard here, why then should 
he have ever been bothered with one? 

Is God going to have all nature fulfilling itself 
in growth, bloom, perfection, and all completing 
its existence in itself and leave man, his highest 
creature, unfinished, incomplete? Will he per- 
mit the bulb to bloom forth in fragrance and 
beauty in the hyacinth, and leave man to die 
and live not again? 

Who is satisfied to say that all inequalities are 
made equal before man's death on earth? Why 
are the good and true so often taken through a 
whole lifetime of chastening and refining if there 
is to be no use for the pure gold of character 
when thus refined. 

As someone has suggested the question, I em- 
phasize it in substance now. Will God give 
more permanence to the art than to the artist? 
Will He preserve his paintings and the canvas 
and let the great soul that painted the picture 
go into death and an eternal sleep ! Does he 
care more for things than persons? 



[IE THREE CIRCLES. 153 



CHAPTER III. 
THE SOUL'S SUPREMACY 

OR 

MIND AND HEART CULTURE IN RELA- 
TION TO THE FUTURE LIFE. 

Text: Proverbs 4: 2^ — ''Keep thy heart with 
all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." 

OUR MENTAL NATURES IN RELATION TO THE 
FUTURE, 

When God created man in His own image and 
likeness He created him both an intellectual and 
a moral being, and since it is evident that He 
has not given us any part of our being that is use- 
less, He would have us cultivate and use 
to the best advantage, it follows that both our 
mental and moral natures should be cultivated; 
not only that we be symmetrical, balanced and 
harmonious in our lives here, but that we may 
be better prepared in mind and soul hereafter, 
for which this life, after all, is only a training, a 
disciplining and an educational school. 

We would, then, first consider the importance 
of mental culture, giving to the mind faculties, 
perceptions, reason, judgment, memory and re- 
flection, imagination and anticipation. God evi- 
dently gave us these great faculties and powers 
of the mind to use to His glory and not to trifle 
or play with like new toys for children. 

Our Creator certainly would not have had any 
person or persons give less cultivation to the in- 



154 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

tellectual part of their being, however much more 
He would have had them cultivate the moral. 
So far as mere intellectual attainment and culture 
are concerned likely no nation has ever surpassed 
ancient Greece, and I do not believe God would 
have had any one of her great scholars, or the 
nation as a whole, cultivate their mental powers 
less, but He would have had them cultivate the 
higher and nobler part of their being more. 
How grand, sublime, symmetrical, this great peo- 
ple might have been had they been as ener- 
getic in moral and heart aspirations as in intel- 
lectual achievements. 

PROPER KNOWLEDGE OE THE FACULTIES OF THE 
MIND. 

In order that we cultivate and make proper 
use of these faculties it is well that we be able to 
define and know them. We find first that these 
bodies of ours, or our physical being, have five 
senses or sensations, hearing, seeing, feeling, 
tasting, smelling, and these all contributing to 
sense perceptions, or, in other words, when any 
or all of these sensations touch our being we 
perceive or know. Next the faculty of reason 
is important in that we not only need to know but 
reason and balance and adjust that knowledge to 
its best use. The faculty of memory is simply 
the registrar of what comes through these senses 
to the mind ; simply a record keeper and is ready 
for us at any time when called upon. The fac- 
ulty of judgment is the determining, the authori- 
tative principle of the mind, and the faculty of 
imagination, that which prospects, anticipates, 
expects, hopes, desires. Thus we see how neces- 
sary it is that these faculties, each, be cultivated 
that the man may be furnished in mental powers, 
and how especially this last faculty of imagination 
reaches out into the future of this life, not only, 
but into the other for its answers that cannot be 
fully given in this. Some insist that this faculty 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 155 

is a strong argument for the future, in that we 
cannot imagine a thing that has not an objective 
reaHty somewhere, sometime, and that our very 
imaginations, anticipations and expectations of 
another Hfe must be answered in these things 
themselves, in that other Hfe. 

If fruitfulness and flowers are the result of 
culture and cultivation, so is it true of mental ac- 
complishments and results. These can only come 
of active use of these faculties in due proportion. 
Mental sloth and inaction can no more please God 
than physical sloth and laziness in a garden could 
please the gardener. 

Ah ! these fully developed and cultivated facul- 
ties of the mind, the intellectual part of our being, 
only lead up to the higher and more important 
part of our being. No, these faculties and their 
resultant fruitfulness in the mind were not for 
time only but for eternity, and are to be asso- 
ciated with that higher part of our being, the 
moral, the soul, forever. No, these thoughts 
were not given us to perish and they will not. 

MENTAL CULTURE ALONE AN ERROR. 

Mere cultivation of the mind, not to be fol- 
lowed by heart and soul culture, leaves man an 
intellectual and mental monstrosity — a one- 
sided, incomplete, and abnormal being. Such a 
man would only be a moral iceberg and he would 
be so cold and frigid that he could not be loved by 
God or his fellow beings. Imagine a tender, 
loving wife trying to live happily with such a 
man, even though he might startle the world 
with his mental powers, with his scientific dis- 
quisitions. Ah ! what would all that amount to 
if he was a moral brute to his wife and children ? 
They would evidently desire a little more of that 
great essential and essence of God's nature, love. 
The world has had some sad illustrations of these 
creatures who have given all their attention to 
mind and none to soul culture. 



156 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

THE SOUL god's THRONE. 

. Yes, the soul is where God's throne is. Our 
moral nature, our heart culture is His chief con- 
cern. Here is His injunction and command, 
through Proverbs 4 : 23 : '' Keep thy heart with 
all diligence." Here is where we prove we are 
really great or small, important or unimportant, 
in the eye of God and in the final estimation of 
man himself, as well. A man is really never 
great if he is not great at heart; if he is not 
morally great and true in all departments of life. 
Even by the estimation of man himself of his 
fellow man he finally honors him more for 
his moral courage, heroism and prowess than for 
his intellectual attainments. Yes, men will live in 
the minds and memory of men by what they have 
done for God and their fellow man longer than 
for their mere mental or intellectual achieve- 
ments, and if this be so of man's estimation how 
much more so of God, who created him for the 
purpose of his love? 

EXAMPLES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 

From every department of life we might find 
apt illustrations, but will only call upon one or 
two and they may be sufficient to answer for all 
others. In war there is a special opportunity for 
honors and praise of men who as generals plan 
and conduct great campaigns and battles ; for the 
conditions are favorable for men claiming the 
plaudits of men ; but the man, who may be only 
a private, who shows great daring and heroic 
sacrifice, or unusual devotion to duty, will, in 
both the eyes of God and man, be the greater 
hero. 

Yes, the moral heroism, the lofty courage, the 
magnanimous acts, prompted by the great moral 
and soul natures of Wellington, Washington and 
Grant stand out in the sober and final estimation 
of man as greater than any of their real, 
intellectual accomplishments. Certainly the mag- 



THE THREE CmCLES. 157 

nanimous spirit of General Grant in his con- 
ditions of surrender from General Lee at 
Appomattox was greater than any of his more 
intellectual campaigns and battle planning. 

Once more. Mentioning three great women, 
great in intellect but greater of heart and soul, 
rushed to battle fields and there bound up broken 
hearts as well as broken bones and bodies. There 
they kneeled on battle fields, in hospitals and in 
camp, beside bleeding, suffering, dying men; 
prayed with them and for them ; received their 
dying messages for the dear ones they should 
never see on earth again. Ah, when the great 
intellectual feats of the greatest generals are for- 
gotten those noble deeds of the lofty and noble 
souls of Florence Nightingale, Mary A. Liver- 
more, Clara Barton and many more will shine 
out brighter and brighter before the world. 

Again, let us come down to a quieter life and 
sphere of action; let us illustrate from the field 
of merchandise. Where an honest man sees 
bankruptcy staring him in the face and he can 
legally — but not morally — pay off his debts 
with 50 cents on the dollar and leave his family 
and himself well cared for, but refuses to do so, 
and goes to God and asks him to give him life, 
health and strength that he may pay 100 cents on 
the dollar, and goes nobly to work and econo- 
mizes, and his wife, too, as heroically and as 
much to be praised, co-operates with him and 
finally pays the last cent and dies poor, is a 
greater hero in most men's minds, and certainly 
always in God's, than the man who has shown 
himself a great master of finance simply as to 
mere mental power and acumen. 

Walter Scott and Mark Twain (S. L. Clem- 
ens) will be remembered by men in honor for 
their great sacrifice in giving up all and facing 
the future ; the first almost to death and the other 
for years, that men might have the last cent due 



158 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

them. These men will be honored for this when 
their writings may be almost forgotten. 

man's chief power and importance. 

Certainly here in the soul and moral realm of 
man's being is where his chief power and im- 
portance lies ; here is the principle of his being 
that makes him more nearly related to God than 
any other; here is the higher nature of man; 
here is that which is above the basement of his 
being, the body ; above the mind, which is above 
the body; an outlook from the soul height and 
window into the very throne of God is seen. 
Ah ! from intellectual heights men will look into 
the future and long for eternity to finish their 
work in science, literature, philosophy, astrono- 
my, chemistry, alchemy and all ; but the passion 
and soul yearning of these will be small in com- 
parison with the thirst for the future, where 
kindred souls in love for God and man shall com- 
plete their existence, or continue it, rather, on 
and on in the great eternity. If our moral nature 
is sick let us go to Him who is the great physi- 
cian of souls, no other than Jesus Christ, for 
soul cleansing and moral regeneration, and there 
cultivate this cleansed heart by the directions as 
found in his word, especially in Matthew, 25th 
chapter. Do this and then the future will not 
disappoint. Ah ! noble souls, who have lived, 
loved, sacrificed, and many even who have died 
for love of God and man, you are not to be dis- 
appointed. Another and more congenial clime 
for your souls must open to you, where they can 
bloom out in moral and spiritual beauty and fra- 
grance. 

If not, why not? 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 159- 



CHAPTER IV. 

MAN'S IDEA OF GOD'S JUSTICE DE- 
MANDING A FUTURE. 

A MONITOR IN MAN. 

Text: Romans 2: i to if,. 

THAT GOD IS JUST^ IS A NATURAL AND AN EDU- 
CATED IDEA OF MAN. 

Having, in a former chapter, concluded that 
all nations and most persons believe in God and a 
future life, we would now further say that not 
only has the idea of a God, that has created and 
rules over all, been a permanent belief of man, 
but that this God is a God of justice is equally 
as permanent and as fixed in the mind of man, 
even if some of his ideas as to God's character- 
istics may seem peculiar and unreasonable to us. 

From the Indian in his wigwam to the rich 
man in his palace ; from the peasant in his pov- 
erty to the ruler on the throne ; in fact men in 
any and all phases and stations in life have con- 
cluded that their God is a God of justice, what- 
ever their ideas as to the character of that justice. 

This idea of justice is evidenced in every rude 
settlement, even of the lowest tribes to the high- 
est government of the best governed villages, 
cities and nations, in that the laws and rules are 
based and fixed on a basis of conduct right and 
wrong, lawful and unlawful, with penalties at- 
tached for the violation or infringement of these 
laws. These ideas and customs were prevalent 
before the great moral law of God in the " Ten 



160 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

Commandments " was given. The " Command- 
ments," simply answering to that sense of justice 
that man had been searching for, and that which 
he should put in practice in the basis of the juris- 
prudence of the world, as seen in the " Twelve 
tables " of Rome, and the basic principle of all 
law today. How did this idea get into the mind 
and conviction of man, and why does it remain 
there in ever increasing belief? Why is it a 
thing so inherent if God did not place it there? 
If He did then it must answer to a characteristic 
of God. 

Every execution of criminals, from the older 
methods of the headsman, the nailing to the 
cross, the gallows, to the more modern, and to 
some more aesthetic and cultured way, of electro- 
cution, gives evidence of man insisting that if 
man does not do right and violates the laws and 
rules provided for his conduct that he must pay 
the penalty, from mild imprisonment for minor 
ofTenses, to that of death for the greater, and that 
of murder. 

THE MONITOR IN MAN 

OR 

MAN, CREATED IN THE LIKENESS OF A JUST GOD, 
MUST HAVE A SENSE OF HIS JUSTICE. 

It is a most reasonable and universal belief in 
man, that God is not only just but He has in- 
stilled in us this idea, that wherein we are unjust 
we must suffer sooner or later, and as a guide to- 
justice He has given us a law in which He reveals 
Himself to us as to the real sense of justice, that 
He would have us understand, and this or these 
laws, are to be obeyed, lived up to and operated 
by no less a monitor, guide and regulator than 
that of our moral sense, in that which is com- 
monly called our conscience, in other words, the 
voice of God within us telling us that which is 
right and wrong. 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 161 

Since it is evident that God has given us a 
moral law and nature, and has also given us 
a regulator, director and guide of that law and 
nature, it is equally evident that this God-given 
principle within us will direct us aright, if it is 
not interfered with in our violation of some other 
law He has given us. This of course suggests 
that old question, for so many years debated, not 
only of theologians but also of country debating 
clubs, as well as in countless numbers of indi- 
vidual and personal discussion as to whether 
conscience is a true moral guide. Since we do 
not want to take much time in whipping and 
threshing " old straw " that has long since been 
deprived of its golden grain, we would only sug- 
gest that the practical consensus of opinion today 
is that conscience is all right, if in order. This, 
to my mind, is about as near the settlement of 
the question as we will ever get until we are 
apprised of God, of new truth in this regard. 
However, we will suggest an illustration or two, 
or rather repeat one or two that may have been 
used by yourself many times. The alarm clock 
will av/ake us at the right time, if in order, every 
morning but if we neglect to attend to its warn- 
ing ring we will find that each succeeding 
morning it disturbs us less, until we can sleep 
soundly with all its ringing and banging *at us. 
So these moral natures of ours ; we may neglect 
this faithful monitor and prompter of our lives, 
until it may, as the alarm clock, ring as faith- 
fully as ever in our moral ears, but we being so 
dulled to its sound, by the world and the sleep 
and intoxication of sin, that we do not hear and 
of course cannot heed its warning voice. 

If conscience is the voice of God telling us 
that which is right and wrong, and we have got- 
ten ourselves so out of range with Him that we do 
not even hear His voice how can we be directed 
by it? 



162 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

Again, I would suggest that because we do not 
hear this faithful monitor and sentinel of God it 
will not avail us as an excuse or reason why we 
should not be punished for its neglect, or for the 
error that its neglect has brought us into. As in 
the case of our neglect of the alarm clock we may 
complain all we please to the agent at the station, 
that we would have been on time for the train 
but that we did not hear the alarm to awaken 
us, and he will only laugh at us and inform us 
that that is not his lookout ; that the train is gone, 
just the same, and we must suffer whatever loss 
it is to us, let it be all the way from the loss of a 
pleasant visit with a friend, the loss of a fortune, 
to missing the dying words of a dear friend. 

Even a conscience seared and deadened will, 
after some greater crime or offense against it, 
cause miserable forebodings in man, in that he 
believes he must suffer of the law here and also 
hereafter for his sin. And this is evidenced and 
proven in the fact that the most restless of men 
■are criminals, nervously fearing and dreading 
every footstep, lest it be an officer of the law 
coming to apprehend and bring him to account 
in justice, or the messenger of the law of Heaven 
asking for an accounting before God. 

MAN, HAVING A SENSE OF JUSTICE, SEEING SO 

MUCH INJUSTICE MUST INFER ANOTHER LIFE 

WHERE JUSTICE WILL HAVE HER RECKONING, 

" Right forever on the scaffold, wrong forever 
on the throne " may be poetic but is not a conclu- 
sion in the mind of most men. Even if it does 
often seem so, as to this life, it cannot, it must 
not be so, in the next, where a God of justice is 
enthroned. 

Yes, from the beginning, it seems, a large part 
of man's conduct toward God has been at vari- 
ance with His will and laws. But it is not to be 
forever so, and the account against man must be 
adjusted to the satisfaction of justice in the court 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 163 

of Heaven. 

Again, " man's inhumanity to man " has only 
been surpassed by that of his unworthy treatment 
of God, his Creator. History's pages are red 
with the blood of man's treachery to his fellow 
man, and the last man, stopping to reflect, must 
conclude that this accumulation of crime against 
God and man, in humanity, must be dealt with 
in justice here or hereafter. 

And when we look about the world and see so 
many inequalities and so much unfairness on the 
part of man to his fellow being, we cannot but 
conclude that a God of justice will call all to 
account, bye and bye, that have not met and paid 
the penalty in this life. 

Alas ! we would that the record against man in 
history might be less awful, criminal and terrible 
than it is. But since we must accept it as it is, 
•rather than as we would wish it, we may still 
learn some lessons. I trust that its record may 
at least alarm and arouse the moral sense and 
monitor within us that the succeeding genera- 
tions may be more a credit to man than the last 
have been or the present is. 

Oh, the fields that have run red with the blood 
of men because of violated or benumbed con- 
science. Fiends in the form of men, as rulers 
and statesmen, that have planned and operated 
wars for selfish gain, personal gratification or 
revenge, these wars being the means of the slay- 
ing of millions of innocent, unoffending men, and 
entailing awful suffering on innocent women and 
children ; these very men of war living the re- 
mainder of their days in peace and plenty. Ah, 
can we, with a sense of justice, say there must 
not be a day of reckoning for such ; a day in 
which the innocent shall be rewarded for what 
they have innocently suffered, and one in which 
the guilty shall suffer for what they have caused 
others to suffer? Oh, some one suggests, that 



164 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

their punishment is in this world and their con- 
science is their punishment. This, I think, is not 
evident, for so often the offending, at least so 
far as all we can learn from outward lives, are 
having many pleasures and less sorrows than the 
ones they have offended. 

Again, how often we see wealthy families of 
which the several members seem to give no evi- 
dence whatever of a holy thought. Godless, 
irreverent, never attending the services of the 
sanctuary, giving their whole time to selfish 
amusement; hard, cruel, selfish, drinking in alt 
they can, of at least the surface pleasures of life,, 
while a family in a nearby street, in which every 
member is a professed follower of the meek and 
lowly Jesus, will have a whole life of suffering, 
affliction, poverty, distress and, so far as human 
mind can discern, a series of misfortunes from 
beginning to end. How can we think that a God, 
of justice will let these two families close this 
life — the one in direst poverty and want and 
the other in affluence — and leave matters for- 
ever so. Does not Christ hint at the solution of 
this question in the story of the rich man and 
Lazarus ? Is it not likely that the angels of God 
are recording all this and that we must answer 
according to the deeds done in the body? How 
about the awful Belshazzar? Is all the account- 
ing he is to give for his awful sacrilege, and life 
of immorality, in his fear and quaking and panic, 
at the banquet feast at the time of his death? 
Did the wretched Ahab and Jezebel pay all their 
moral debt in their deaths? Did Absalom, Ahi- 
thophel and Judas settle their full account with 
God in being hanged or killing themselves ? Did 
their later conscience save them from later ac- 
counting ? How about Herod, and Nero, and all 
the foul fiends that occupied thrones, while such 
saintly souls as Paul and others suffered awful 
imprisonment and death at their hands? How 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 165 

about the fiends of hell with fire of passion from 
the same source, kindle faggots that burned to 
death the grandest and sublimest souls that ever 
lived on earth? Oh! ye robbers of widows and 
orphans, letting your victims die in cellars 
and garrets while you live and die in palaces. 
You, yourselves, must fear results. Robbers of 
city treasuries, living on and dying in luxury be- 
fore caught of man, are you not to give an account 
to God ? How is it that the noble young man or 
woman dies, as is often the case, and the ignoble 
lives on to no apparent purpose? Why do insti- 
tutions of evil thrive and they of philanthropy 
fail? We must not be impatient. God has 
eternity to adjust and adjudicate this inequality 
here and He will do so. We must understand 
that making great bequests to objects of charity 
and to public institutions will not settle the ac- 
count with God and His servants, of whom the 
funds to display such gifts were obtained. Will 
God, the author of justice, let her go unsatisfied 
in the future world if not in this ? 

Ah, you say why these inequalities? I do not 
know, but insist that the plan, purpose and final 
operation of God's laws must be just and right. 
He did not take so much pains in creating man 
to leave him imperfect, as in such an important 
characteristic as final justice. His plans are 
right, even if we, in the haze and confusion of 
the present, are not able to see it so. In this life 
virtue does not seem to have her reward. Every 
trustful soul of God must — will be rewarded 
sometime, somehow, somewhere. Guilty men, 
themselves, believe that wrong ought to be pun- 
ished in this or another life even if they them- 
selves hope to avoid it. 

This matter of conscience, outside of its being 
a righteous plan of God, is an excellent moral 
police, for the sin in man would run wilder riot 
and wreckage in life than it does if not for the 



166 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

fear of punishment in this and the other Hfe. 

Yes, we cannot complain. God has given us 
His just law and warns and instructs by His 
guide in our consciences, if we will but listen. If 
not what else can we expect from His justice 
than that we must give an account bye and bye., 

" God moves in a mysterious way 
His wonders to perform; 
He plants his footsteps in the sea, 
And rides upon the storm. 

" Blind unbelief is sure to err, 
And scan his work in vain; 
God is his own interpreter, 
I And he will make it plain." 



THE THREE CIKCLSS. 167 



CHAPTER V. 

PREPARATION FOR HEAVEN. 

John 15:2, I go to prepare a place for you. 
Matt. 6 : 33, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and 
his righteousness, and all these things shall be 
added unto you. 

PREPARATION AND EDUCATION IN TIME FOR THAT 
OF ETERNITY. 

In nature, in the revelation of God in His 
word, in mind and soul anticipations, aspirations, 
and yearnings, we catch glimpses and foretastes 
of a glorious and heavenly future life; but deep 
down in our sober reasonings and conclusions, 
we realize that we are far from readiness for en- 
trance into a place, state and life so pure, holy, 
and perfect. 

And since we have in previous cases concluded 
that there is without doubt a future hfe, and that 
our life there will be largely what is prepared for 
here, if this future home is to be so pure and holy 
a place, and the preparation for it is only in this 
world, it certainly behooves us to stir ourselves 
to utmost diligence, in order that at the end of 
this Hfe, we do not meet with the direst and most 
bitter disappointment. 

The problem becomes still more momentous 
and important in that the next life is for eternity, 
and not for a brief period of time. How neces- 
sary, then, it is for us to be in constant drill, 
training, discipline, culture, testing, and educa- 
tion. Education is so necessary to any useful- 
ness in this life, and of course much more for a 



168 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

more perfect one; in preparation for law, medi- 
cine, mechanics, ministry, commerce, teaching, 
art, science, hterature, etc., it requires a long and 
careful training and discipline before we are in 
readiness for efficient and useful lives, and since 
all these, according to the text, are secondary, and 
are not to be considered until provision for the 
things of the eternal kingdom are provided for, 
we should be careful not to reverse the order, as 
many are doing, seeking all these Urst, and giving 
a fragment of time, thought and concern for the 
greater. How reckless we are in admitting that 
heaven is to be great, grand, and beyond com- 
parison with this, and that it is necessary in this 
life to prepare for it, and yet go on indifferent 
and heedless, giving scarcely no thought or sacri- 
fice, and somehow blindly hoping and presuming 
that a merciful God will forget to be just, com- 
promising His justice and inconsistently admit- 
ting us into Heaven, prepared or unprepared. 
Do we not have to cultivate our ears and eyes to 
the harmonies in music, and our ears to its ac- 
cordant strains before we obtain much pleasure 
from it ? Do we not have to train our eyes to art 
and all that is aesthetic and beautiful before we 
enjoy such in its fulness? Do we not have to 
prepare for our work in life by a long appren- 
ticeship, or be embarrassed in our first attempt 
to secure a position from firms or institutions 
desiring efficiency, and we somehow seem to act 
as though all the felicities, harmonies, and loveli- 
ness of Heaven will be ours without soul edu- 
cation or preparation for them. 

Our Heavenly Father and School Master 
places us here in this great school and university 
of life, He being the greatest teacher any school 
ever had, giving us the best text-book of the 
centuries, no less a one than the blessed Bible, 
which assures us that if we are faithful learners 
and disciples of His, after having matriculated 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 169 

here and studied to show ourselves approved 
of Him, we shall be rewarded beyond any com- 
prehension of ours. How many departments 
there are in this great life school in which to 
prepare : first, that of the home, which is the 
surest type and symbol of the future home ; what 
grand lessons in cherished friendships and loves ; 
what a wonderful school in which to love, serve, 
and sacrifice for Christ and our loved ones; the 
Church in all her departments, her songs, pray- 
ers, sermons, Bible study, all in preparation for 
the Church and home above. 

PREPARATION IN TIME FOR A JOURNEY TO AN 
ETERNAL CLIME. 

How necessary we find it in planning for a 
journey to some distant clime or country to care- 
fully prepare; how we think and talk of it for 
days, weeks, and months ; how we study geogra- 
phy, maps, charts, guides, the language of the 
places and lands that we expect to visit, that we 
may be able to converse and commune with those 
we expect to meet; how we look forward to the 
sights that shall charm us in cities, libraries, mu- 
seums, cathedrals, palaces, and the great number 
of things that shall engage our attention in a 
lon.of journey; how we almost hear the great 
songs that are to ravish our ears from the noted 
galleries ; how our eyes are, long before the jour- 
ney, in anticipation, delighted with the sights in 
valleys, mountains, and rivers; well enough that 
we prepare carefully; but how awfully stupid it 
is of us to give so much concern to the journey 
that at best must end; at best must have many 
disappointments and regrets in it; when for the 
one eternal, which cannot disappoint, but rather 
enchant and enrapture us beyond any earthly 
scene or song, we concern ourselves so little. 
Oh, how dull, listless, and heedless we are if we 
do not for this journey, make the last possible 
preparation. 



170 THE THEEE CIRCLES. 

Delays of trains, transfers, accidents, dust, 
deserts, and many inconveniences must be en- 
countered in our journey from the bleak and win- 
try Eastern coasts before we can arrive in the 
lovely sunny and most enchanting land of flow- 
ers and golden fruitage of California, or in pre- 
paration for a journey across the sea, to sunny 
Italy or other place of pleasure. We must antici- 
pate the storms of the sea; we must prepare in 
means for transport, for funds, and all that be- 
longs to a great or extended journey, and if so 
for these journeys to climes of earth, how much 
more should we not for those of Heaven. If it is 
necessary to have many things to contend with by 
the way of the journey of earth or sea, is it not 
reasonable that it may be much more so of the one 
to Heaven? If we are almost ashamed of our- 
selves when in these climes of earth, for having 
fretted and chaffed under the discomforts of the 
journey, how much greater will be our confusion 
in the presence of the glories beyond the climes 
of earth, that we ever here complained at the 
things that annoyed us in preparation. If it is 
necessary to plan carefully our journey, and to 
select and contract for vessel privileges, a safe 
ship, pilot and captain, or in trusting our lives to 
the railroad and the engineer, to safely pilot 
across the stormy deep or carry us through the 
mountains and deserts of the continent, how 
much more is it necessary to select the great cap- 
tain and pilot, Jesus Christ, to safely pilot us 
across the sea and continent eternal. 

PREPARATION IN TIME IN SOCIAL AND SPIRITUAL 
CULTURE FOR OUR HOME ETERNAL. 

How can we expect to enjoy the advantages of 
cultured souls on earth if we have not taken the 
pains to obtain culture ourselves? As well ex- 
pect a garden or orchard to produce itself, with- 
out cultivation and pruning, beautiful and fra- 
grant flowers, golden ripe and mellow fruits, as 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 171 

to expect culture without pains to obtain it, or 
expect to enjoy the society of others who are cul- 
tured when we ourselves are ignorant, boorish, 
and uneducated. Alas, what a confusion and 
embarrassment some people would be in to sud- 
denly be cast into the home in Heaven, in all its 
perfection, mutual loves, sympathies, and felici- 
ties, when having experienced none of these 
things on earth; as well expect an Indian from 
the forest with the skins of wild beasts on the 
walls of his hut or wigwam to be charmed at the 
great pictures in a palace of a rich man, or in a 
great art gallery, as to expect one to enjoy the 
glories of Heaven, not having anticipated or pre- 
pared for them while on earth. 

And, again, what an embarrasment it would be 
to some people who insist they are going to 
Heaven, and yet do not speak to their neighbors 
or those that also insist that they are going to 
the same place ; what a chagrin it will be to us to 
have lived in the same community or worshiped 
at the same church for years and then to have 
one of the angels introduce us to our neighbor 
or Church friend in Heaven. The " Word " says 
that Christ is going to prepare a place for us, 
and this of itself enjoins upon us the necessity 
of our preparing ourselves for that place. If 
we were suddenly called upon to go I think many 
of us would be frightened at the thought of our 
only being prepared for the lost estate beyond, 
and yet not daring to say we are prepared for 
Heaven. We should not only sing, but should 
FEEL, '' Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in 
Christian love," and that is really " the fellowship 
of kindred minds, like to that above." If we do 
not hold sweet fellowship on earth, how can we 
expect to in Heaven ? Why not get at it and really 
introduce ourselves to the conditions of Heaven 
on earth and really be in sweet fellowship for the 
more perfected bliss bye and bye? If there is a 



172 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

person on earth you will not speak to, or will not 
speak to you, see that one quickly, and fix it up, 
or you may have the sad regret soon, that all 
such possibilities are at end. 

OUR PREPARATION IN TIME IN LIFE'S CRUCIBLE 
FOR OUR HOME IN HEAVEN. 

" Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and 
scourgeth every son whom he receiveth ; no 
chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, 
but grievous ; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth 
the peaceable fruit of righteousness." We are 
taught all through the word of God that we can- 
not hope to obtain our home beyond without 
chastening, refining, discipline, and purifying 
fires ; in other words, if we are worthy of the pres- 
ence of Him who bore the cross for us, we must 
bear our cross for Him. 

We cannot conceive of an earthly father 
chastening his child just for amusement, or at 
least without some object in view, for the better- 
ing of the son ; how much less the thought of our 
loving Heavenly Father placing trials and suffer- 
ings upon us with any but the good of our souls 
as His ultimate object. It is often the best evi- 
dence that God loves us, in that when we are try- 
ing to serve Him we have trials. These in His 
love are often the only means of His drawing us 
closer to Himself, He knowing that in the ab- 
sence of sickness, suffering, trial and death of 
friends, we should in most cases forget or neg- 
lect Him entirely. Sometimes the only way He 
can get those He loves to even stop and think of 
Him is in His calling to Himself a loved one ; 
it is often that the preparation for Heaven be- 
gins at the dropping of contrite tears on the grave 
of a dear one. 

Let us bear in mind that it is only through the 
hottest and intensest heat that the dross from base 
metals can be separated, and the pure gold and 
silver be obtained, and that it is often necessary 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 173 

for Him to take us through many refining fires 
before we give evidence of having the pure gold 
of character for the home beyond. We must 
remember that the great refiner and purifier of 
souls will not refine or keep us in the crucible 
longer than is necessary. As the refiner of sil- 
ver watches the liquid mass and the heat most 
closely, and at the proper time and temperature, 
or when he can see his image in the molten mass, 
turns off the heat, so does our Heavenly Refiner, 
when he sees his image in us, turn off the fires 
of refinement. 

" ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD TO THEM 
THAT LOVE GOD. 

We are beset by one interruption after another, 
it may be for a day or many days, or even for a 
whole lifetime. It may be that our dearest and 
best friends are taken from us, or that we meet 
with reverse after reverse in business and all 
seems adversity, until it seems that the powers 
of darkness have all combined their forces against 
us, when, if we could only know it, we are only 
being shielded by our Master from doing the 
things that would be most fatal to us ; if we could 
know the end from the beginning, we would see 
that indeed all was working together for good. 

O it is hard to work for God, 

To rise and take his part 
Upon this battle-field of earth, 

And not sometimes lose heart! 

But right is right since God is God; 

And right the day must win; 
To doubt would be disloyalty. 

To falter would be sin! 

The Lord knows that there are not many who 
can endure the test of much prosperity, and hence 
we are not permitted to have much of it; when 
he makes the world too hot for us we will drop it. 
" Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and 
scourgeth every son whom He receiveth," not 
for evil, but for our good, that we may bear fruit 
for Him. It is said that an owner of a fine gar- 



174 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

den one day discovered one of his fine trees all 
cut, scored and bleeding, and asked his gar- 
dener why he had so treated the tree, and the 
gardener replied that the tree had been bearing 
too many leaves, and he scored it so that it 
would bear fruit. So with us ; we must often 
be lacerated and our hearts made to bleed be- 
fore we come to the Master and begin to bear 
spiritual fruit for Him. Some of the sweetest 
and most lovely characters the world has ever 
known have only become such after a whole 
series of trials and adversities. 

When would we have had Milton's " Paradise 
Lost," had it not been for his blindness? When 
would we have had that immortal allegory, " The 
Pilgrim's Progress," had it not been for the im- 
prisonment of John Bunyan in Bedford jail? 
When would we have had Prescott's " Conquest 
of Mexico," had it not been for his affliction ? 

" It is the law of our humanity to be made per- 
fect through suffering, and he who had not dis- 
cerned the divine sacredness of sorrow, and the 
profound meaning which is concealed in pain, has 
yet to learn the true meaning of life." No man 
hath a velvet cross, yet each cross adds lustre 
to the crown. 

OUR RECKLESSNESS IN THE FACE OF IMPENDING 
DEATH. 

Alas, in these days of the mad rush for wealth, 
for houses and lands, for things of time and 
sense, for the treasures of earth, when they of 
Heaven, that are eternal, are hardly thought of, 
except when the dread monster of death comes ; 
all the wealth at command is used, and death 
is told to stand back, while science in medicine 
and surgery and all array themselves and threat- 
en death and tell him not to come further, but 
he heeds not and comes right on and crowds his 
victim into the grave. Alas, if no preparation. 
Ah, tall libraries, mxonuments of granite in cities 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 175 

of the dead, do not insure a corresponding larger 
proportion of bliss in heaven over the poor man 
or woman that may he in the same sod, without 
possibly even having the resting place for the 
body marked. In fact, the monument of a life for 
God is the only assurance of Heaven. 

'' What will it profit a man if he gain the 
whole world and lose his own soul ? " Ah, as 
the artist was asked why he took so much pains 
with one of his paintings, replied that he was 
painting for eternity, so with us when we paint 
or sing, or whatever we do, let us remember that 
it is for eternity, and the culture of Heaven is in 
the conduct of our work on earth. 

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, 

As the swift seasons roll; 

Leave thy low-vaulted past, 

Let each new temple, nobler than the last. 

Shut thee from Heaven with a dome more vast, 

Till thou at length art free; 

Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea. 

— O. W. Holmes. 



" Less of earth than we had last year. 

Throbs in your veins and throbs in mine, 

For the way to Heaven is growing clear^ 
And the gates of the city fairer shine. 

And the day that our latest treasures flee. 
Wide they will open for you and me." 



176 THE THREE CIRCLES. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE CLOSE OF THE PRESENT AND THE BEGINNING 
OF THE RESURRECTION LIFE. 

John 5 : 28, 29 ; Acts 26 : 8 ; Matt. 28 : 6 ; Matt. 
28 : 18-20 ; Cor. 15 : 20-22, 15 : 26. 

There is a grave across every one's pathway; 
a bUght and frost of decay and death in every 
Hving creature ; all vegetation, fish, fowl, ani- 
mal, and even man, as mortal, must perish and 
die. The multiplied causes of man's departure 
from this life increase with the years ; the break- 
ing of the family circle one by one in death con- 
tinues until the last of the circle has passed be- 
yond ; war, famine, pestilence, accident, fire, flood, 
cyclone, and storm sweep persistently over the 
earth, continually pushing great numbers off the 
shores of time. 

For long centuries and ages processions of 
mourners have been following their loved ones 
toward the ever-increasing and silent cities of 
the dead, until these places of habitation have 
far outnumbered those of the living. In every 
city, persons passing along the streets hear the 
rolling of carriages and the clatter of the hoofs 
of horses, and as they look aside, see these pro- 
cessions making their way to that bourne from 
which no traveler ever returns, there to deposit 
in grave or tomb the body of their loved one. 
The little children in their play are saddened for 
the moment, dropping their toys as they gaze 
upon the strange and mysterious procession, but 
soon return to their play, and the busy ones of 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 177 

the street go on in the whirl of Hfe until they, 
too, become the object of interest in the pro- 
cession. 

On and ever on they go. The laws of health, 
science, and progress in medicine and surgery 
have battled with this monster enemy of death, 
but it heeds not and on it rushes, until it pushes 
the last shrinking victim into the grave and then 
makes its boast of victory. 

Ah, but does death end all ? This has been the 
question of the centuries, and Job only joined his 
question to the concert of the ages, when he ex- 
claimed, '' If a man die, shall he live again? " and 
the question is as persistently before the world 
today as it ever has been, and will not down 
until it is answered of God and His Son, Jesus 
Christ, who is the " Resurrection and the Life." 
Are we to live again and hold sweet communion 
and loving friendship with those we have cher- 
ished in life ? Where, to what, and to whom will 
we go for our answer? Some one suggests that 
we enquire of nature, since she has been reveal- 
ing many secrets, and has taught man many 
practical lessons, that possibly upon this mo- 
mentous question she may throw some rays of 
light. 

When I see the searing and the browning of 
the meadows in the autumn time, the frosting 
and withering of the beautiful flowers, the trees 
of orchard and forest disrobing themselves, and 
great clouds of the seared and frosted leaves 
falling to the earth to decay and death ; when in 
midwinter, I see the earth enshrouded in a cold 
mantle or sheet of snow, the rivers, rivulets and 
rills, locked in their icy embrace ; when I hear 
the sighing of the wind as though singing a 
funeral dirge to the flowers and hear its shriek 
and wail through the barren branches of the 
trees, it seems desolation and disconsolation com- 
plete, and if I am to be persuaded that all this 



173 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

is ever to remain so, I could not be consoled. 
But when I reflect and remember that in sea- 
sons and winters past this desolation and wintry 
deadness has been followed by the happy spring- 
time, when the warming and refreshing showers 
have unlocked the frozen streams, and they again 
rippled and rushed down the mountain and hill- 
side and through the meadows singing a beauti- 
ful song on their way ; when the flowers under the 
spell and charm of the sun and the showers and 
balmy air have burst forth in all their fragrance 
and beauty ; when the orchards are again laden 
with rich and fragrant bloom, giving hope and 
promise of a golden fruitage in the summer 
and autumn time ; when the trees of the forest 
have re-enrobed themselves, the meadows have 
encarpeted themselves in nature's green, and the 
birds have returned from the southland, and all 
nature has joined them in singing most charming 
and soul enchanting anthems and songs ; when I 
see the worm has unfolded and developed itself 
into a beautiful winged creature, the unsightly 
bulb has come out of its slime and mould of 
earth to a fragrant and beautiful lily ; I ask, are 
there not signs, symbols, and hints to me in all 
these that when I am dead, that I, too, may be 
privileged to arise and come forth into a new and 
more perfect form and life than I now have? 
Yes, most certainly; these all do contribute a 
wonderful store to our anticipations and hopes 
of the future. But there are yet stronger and 
more incontestible proofs in revelation in God's 
own words, and more still in the life, death, and 
resurrection of the Lord and Savior Jesus 
Christ. Yes, the final answer must be in Christ, 
or there is no answer. The darkest hours of the 
world's history were when Christ hanged lifeless 
upon the cross, and when He lay enclosed and 
sealed in the tomb; the saddest of men and 
women were those who lowered His body from 




SADNESS TO BE TURNED TO JOY. 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 179 

the cross and anointed it for the entombment; 
and the refrain of all this sadness found itself 
in the words of those who walked toward Em- 
maus when they said, *' But we trusted that it had 
been he which should have redeemed Israel." It 
is no wonder that the clouds gathered in their 
densest darkness, presaging an ominous and 
awful event of the rending of the temple veil, the 
opening of graves and the coming forth of the 
dead out of their graves. Ah, dark indeed if 
He who had claimed to be the Christ is to sleep 
on with others. If so, prophecy has failed and 
has no meaning; all has gone with the story of 
idle dreamers of heathen nations. If so, Christ 
was not only not a good man, but was a bad 
man — an imposter, for He claimed to be the 
Christ and the world's Redeemer, and He was 
all of this or none. If He is not risen, His state- 
ment, " I am the Resurrection and the Life," His 
promise of Heaven with its many mansions, to- 
gether with all His other promises have gone, 
and we are hopeless indeed. If He is not risen 
the miracles are after all only pretenses and are 
no more than pious frauds, incantations, and 
magical marvels. 

Again, if Christ be not risen, then Plato and 
others might be held in greater esteem, for Jesus 
claimed so much more than they. He not only 
claimed to be the Son of God, but also claimed 
that after His death He should rise again, and 
had He not done so He would not only have 
lost His claim as Son of God, but all His teach- 
ings also would have failed with His remaining 
in the tomb. 

In Christ's resurrection the whole Christian 
faith is established. Take away the fact of the 
resurrection and you tear down the whole Chris- 
tian structure. His life and claims all focus and 
center about the resurrection. Christ did, indeed, 
become the " first fruits of them that slept." " If 



180 THE THREE CIRC^LES. 

there is no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ 
not risen, and if Christ be not risen, then our 
faith is vain, and they which have fallen asleep 
in Christ are perished," and that glorious expres- 
sion of Jesus, "I am the Resurrection and the 
Life," how Httle comfort would we get out 
of it had Christ not come forth from the tomb ! 

SOME TRY TO DENY THE RESURRECTION ON 
ACCOUNT OF IT BEING MYSTERIOUS. 

The objection to the resurrection on account of 
its being mysterious is the most futile of all 
objections. What is there in either the realm of 
matter or spirit that signifies much that is not 
mysterious? If there is found in a mummy a 
grain of wheat that has been there 3,000 years, 
and it sprout and grow; if a traveler find some 
roots in a mummy case that have been there 
thousands of years, and they sprout and grow; 
if nature can hold such latent powers within her- 
self for thousands of years what cannot God do, 
who made nature? The great Farady one day 
had some servants working for him, and in some 
way one of them knocked a silver cup into a 
vessel of some strong chemical and the cup was 
dissolved at once ; this frightened the poor serv- 
ant very much ; but Farady calmed his fears and 
told him that he could get the cup back again, 
and he did, by putting some other kind of 
chemical in the vessel which caused the silver 
all to gather to itself again, atter which it was sent 
to the silversmith and made into a cup again. 
If the chemist and the silversmith can do so 
much, cannot God, who made all and all the laws 
of chemistry, do much greater than this? Will 
we say, there is no such thing as electricity, be- 
cause we cannot tell all about it? The greatest 
of all mysteries is yourself, and are you going to 
say you do not exist because you cannot explain 
yourself ? Yes, indeed, why should it be thought 
a thing incredible that Christ should raise the 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 181 

dead?" 

DEATH A TRIUMPH AND ONLY AN APPARENT 
CALAMITY. 

But thanks be to God, He is risen, and that 
which has seemed a calamity to the women find- 
ing the empty tomb, has become the greatest 
blessing; it was the world's darkest hour before 
its brightest dawn of a new day. " He is 
risen as he said," spake the angel voices from 
the unsealed tomb. All the seals of the Roman 
Empire could not have kept Him in the grave; 
all the soldiers of Caesar on guard must stand 
aside when the Son of God is ready to break 
the seal of death and the grave and come forth. 
Ah, boasting grave, where is your victory now? 
You are defeated, and Christ has become the 
first fruits of them that slept. He not only has 
conquered death and the grave for Himself, but 
for all who trust in Him and the power of His 
resurrection. Yes, Death, you may still hunt 
among the poor, the rich, and in the hospitals 
and in homes, and in war and pestilence, famine, 
lire, and flood for your victims, but the best 
you can do is to separate the soul and body until 
God shall reunite them in a perfect environment 
never to be disturbed again by you. Yes, sar- 
cophagus, catacombs, mausoleum, grave and 
tomb, land and sea must yield their dead when 
Christ comes in the clouds of glory accompanied 
with the liveried hosts of Heaven. Yes, Death, 
3^ou may reduce the dust of man to his original 
dust, but you cannot have his immortal soul. 
Blessed hope and thought! I shall be satisfied 
when I awake in His likeness and see Him as 
He is. And I shall dwell in the house of the 
Lord forever. The enemy death cannot invade 
that home and tell me to vacate. Oh, but, says 
some incredulous soul, " Hozv can it be ? How 
can the dead be raised ? " I answer, I do not 
know hozv. I am not concerned about the man- 



182 THE THREE CIRCLES 

ner of the resurrection, but the fact of it. Why 
should we be concerned about a thing that should 
be left with God? If He is great enough to cre- 
ate a world and all that is therein, and man the 
greatest of all, He is surely able to re-create him. 
The greater certainly includes the lesser, and 
resurrection becomes a very simple and easy 
thing to accomplish left in the hands of God. If 
you are in doubt, do not waste your time tagging 
around after reason, science and philosophy ; they 
cannot enlighten you. Go in faith to God and to 
His Son Jesus Christ and you will be told all 
you need to know and enough to insure your 
salvation and your final resurrection in Him. 
Yet you should not depend so much even on 
the fact of Christ's resurrection insuring yours 
as you do upon His own words and promises. 
For He tells us, and Paul, instructed of Him, 
tells us also, that all that are in their graves shall 
come forth; they that have done good to their 
reward and they that have done evil to their re- 
ward. Some may ask, " May I not remain on 
earth if I care to take my chances with sin and 
suffering? " Fate and fact says, " No." " Then 
may I not go by way of the clouds into Heaven, 
and not by the way of the tomb? " The answer 
again is, " No." But why care for the tomb, 
since Christ has lain in it and has lighted it up? 
It is only a brief subway or tunnel experience, 
and you shall come forth in a grander, better life. 
I remember once, when the new subway was just 
completed in Boston, when going in at the Park 
Street station, it seemed just a little gloomy, but 
very soon the cars ran out into the beautiful 
" Public Gardens," amidst the beautiful and fra- 
grant flowers. Ah, this is only a hint of what the 
grave is to us. Our souls shall be ushered so 
soon into the eternal gardens and sunshine of 
God. A little girl hearing my sermon shortly 
after my experience in the subway, upon being 




A SURPRISED WOMAN IN THE PRESENCE OF A RISEN 

SAVIOR. 



THE THREE CIKCLES. 183 

asked why she was not afraid to go through 
it, said, '' Because it is all lighted up." A 
little sufferer recently, when told she must die, 
asked her father and mother if they would not go 
with her, and they replied that they would, but 
could not. Tears rushed to her eyes, but pres- 
ently they dried, and she smiled and said : '' It 
is all right now, papa and mama, dear, for I have 
asked Jesus and He has promised to go with me. 
Farewell, dear papa and mama, the grave is not 
dark now." 

Yes, after all, the grave is only a vestibule to 
the eternal house of God, with its many man- 
sions.— See page 120. 

How we should rejoice that the tomb was 
found empty, and that we do not erect tombs or 
monuments to a dead Christ. We worship a 
living Christ, and we should praise God that we 
may build sanctuaries where we can worship and 
adore a risen and glorified Saviour. — page 123 

BEAUTY AND GLORY OF OUR RISEN SAVIOR. 

In the beauty of the lilies, 

Christ arose beyond the sea; 
With a halo in His presence, 

That delighted souls to see. 

Rose of Sharon in thy beauty, 

Thou dost rival Eden's bowers, 
But the glory of our Savior 

Is beyond the fairest flowers. 

Burst of beauty on all nature, 

Sweetest lays and songs of birds; 

Sweeter still the songs of angels, 
As they praise a risen Lord. 

From the tomb the angel voices. 

Bid our drooping spirits rise; 
Gone has Christ to His preparing 

Mansions for us in the skies. 



184 THE THREE CIRCLES. 



CHAPTER VII. 

OUR HOME IN HEAVEN OR THE GLORY OF THE 
IMMORTAL LIFE. 

// Heaven is half what is claimed for it, it is 
worth a thousand lives of sacriiice to obtain. 

Since the influence of the circles of the home 
and the Church are all that they are in the world, 
reaching into Heaven itself, we would now con- 
sider that home which gives the home on earth 
its chief significance and meaning — the home 
in Heaven. 

ANTICIPATION OF OUR HOME IN HEAVEN. 

I sleep, I dream, and a vision I see ; to me 
it seems the voyage of life is nearly over; earth 
has been redeemed; there appears to be a new 
earth and a new Heaven ; all nature seems 
to be singing a new song; rippling streams 
rushing down the mountain side ; richly en- 
carpeted green valleys, dotted and fringed in 
lovely flowers ; beautiful enrobed forests, and 
fields, without thistles ; roses without thorns ; 
sweet songsters of the air, twittering, carolling, 
and singing their lovely lays ; overhead the blue 
dome of the sky bejeweled in glittering stars; on 
the earth happy humanity, men, women, and 
children in happy accordant song; no sickness, 
sorrow, pain or death ; even wild beasts have met 
the demand of the prophet and they are led of the 
children. Ah, I am being ushered into a palace 
where I hear faint sound: of sweet singers and 
I catch a glimpse of the glory within. But, alas ! 
the dream and spell is broken, and I am dis- 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 185 

illusionized. L awake to earth as unredeemed, as 
discordant, as disconcerted as ever; disenrobed 
forests and wintry winds shrieking through the 
naked branches ; rivers locked in an icy embrace, 
fields blanketed with snow, the birds have flown 
away, the starry sky o'ercast with clouds ; instead 
of the mansion are dv/elling places in collapse, 
decay and ruin; and the only songs that from 
them come are the discordant cries of the dwell- 
ers from sickness and pain. Suffering, pain, and 
death seem as evident as ever ; yet I awake with 
a vision of sublime and beautiful things that 
must have an objective reality in a home in 
Heaven, which, w^hen I enter, shall be mine for- 
ever when I shall awake in His likeness and see 
Him as He is. Ah, if such illusions and visions 
of the home in Glory can come to one while in a 
sick and disordered earthly body ; if such enchant- 
ments and raptures come to our benumbed and 
dulled minds and spirits, while in this house of 
clay ; what may we not expect when life's fit- 
ful fever is o'er ? 

PREPARATIONS FOR HEAVEN. 

While living even in this brief life, we are not 
only commanded and commissioned of our Heav- 
enly Father to bless and brighten it, to love and 
serve Him faithfully in pure and holy living our- 
selves ; to win the last soul possible to the love 
and service of our Lord in all this, not only for 
the souls that shall be won for him, but that we 
ourselves may be chastened, disciplined, purified, 
and fashioned for an entrance into a home in 
which there will be no rude awakening again, no 
discords, sorrows, and sufferings. Let us realize 
we are yet mortal, though we have caught a 
glint and glimpse of the glorious immortal life. 
We must realize that if it was necessary for 
Christ, as He said, to go and prepare a place for 
us, it is as necessary for us to be prepared 
for that place. If it is to be in the future life, as 



186 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

many believe, that our intellectual and moral de- 
sires, instincts, and natures are to be continued 
in unfettered, unlimited environment in the fu- 
ture, and that our intellectual and spiritual cul- 
ture here in this probationary sphere will condi- 
tion our advancement, progress, and happiness in 
the life beyond, it then behooves us to be diligent 
in mind and soul culture, that we may be worthy 
of the home in preparation for us. Instead of 
so much and such strenuous efforts to grasp and 
possess the things of time and sense, of material 
perishable things of earth, as soil, houses, lands, 
jewels, and all these that at best contribute but 
brief satisfaction to the senses ; would it not be 
better to use these things as means to an end 
only, and give the more heed to the cultivation of 
our moral and religious natures ; to the cultiva- 
tion of a Christlike character, the only available 
asset at death, and the only thing we can take 
with us into the world eternal? 

Yes, indeed, " What shall it profit a man if he 
gain the whole world and lose his own soul ? Ah, 
why not possess treasures in Heaven where moth 
and rust does not corrupt? Why not be able to 
read titles clear to Mansions in the skies? Why 
not strive for crowns, eternal, not only, but for 
crowns with many stars? 

Never mind if the refining fire and the severe- 
discipline and chastening does seem quite exces- 
sive at times, it will not last forever, and let us 
bear in mind it is a preparation for eternity, and 
when it is past and we are in the presence of all 
it has earned for us in the home of Christ, it will 
seem to have been light affliction indeed. But 
some may say where is our map, our chart, our 
guide and pilot to a land so glorious, as our home 
in Heaven is said to be ; are we to grope, are we 
to be pilgrims in a wilderness and darkness with 
no light to our pathway? Are we to float out 
on life's trackless and stormy sea with no helms- 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 187 

man, no captain, no pilot, no guide? Ah, no, 
how plainly we are instructed by the unerring 
guidance of God in the Holy Scriptures: how 
plainly Christ has told us He is the way, in that 
He said, " I am the way, the truth, the life." How 
He told us He would — and He has fulfilled His 
promise — send the Holy Spirit and that He 
would guide us in the way of all truth; when 
these proofs may be multiplied indefinitely, can 
we say we do not have sufficient guidance to lead 
us into this final home of the soul? 

If we are to take an important excursion to 
an unknown land on earth, are we not for weeks 
and often months in collecting maps, histories, 
language, etc., making preparation for it all ? and 
will we leave the shores of time for that great 
unknown land, for the eternal, uncharted, un- 
piloted, unguided ? Alas ! for us if we do. How 
strange and confusing are the languages, man- 
ners, customs of people to one in a journey around 
the globe; especially if he has had no previous 
knowledge in any way of them and their customs 
before his traveling among them ; would not the 
newcomer in Heaven — if permitted to be there 
— in the absence of any preparation, feel embar- 
rassed and out of place if having made no pre- 
vious preparation ? Yes, if we expect to tread the 
streets of strange cities, see great cathedrals and 
palaces, libraries and all that can be anticipated 
in a great earthly voyage, why do we so often 
falter in preparation for the land of Heaven, the 
golden streeted New Jerusalem ? for that glorious 
and wondrous land compared with earth's 
grandest climes ? Yes, preparaed or unprepared, 
we are nearing the shore of the river; prepared 
■or unprepared for the great journey we must go; 
alas ! if no boatman to guide us safely o'er. Shall 
we be permitted to sail within the hearing of en- 
chanting strains and within sight of the glorious 
•clime and then be compelled to pass on to the 



188 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

place and abode of the lost because on earth we 
did not care to prepare and fit ourselves for the 
felicities and joys of a home, clime and country 
so blessed and glorious? 

ENTERING OUR HOME.. 

We are inclined to shrink a little, ever so well 
prepared, at the approach of death and the grave : 
there seems to be to all a shock at the thought of 
separation of soul and body, that have been long 
and closely associated here ; as in the operation 
on the body in a hospital for deformity or dis- 
ease, we anticipate with much joy our reformed 
and cured bodies by the operation, yet we shrink 
at the thought of even a temporary suspense of 
animation during the operation : *but in the pres- 
ence of the glorious fact of Christ's having con- 
quered death and the grave : if he having himself 
gone through and lighted up the tomb and since 
he also came out and has arisen so gloriously to 
his throne in Heaven and has promised us a cer- 
tain resurrection in him we need not fear. Oh, 
yes, we in illustrating from the man who had his 
sleep and dream of glory awaked, to weep again ; 
but he who sleeps in Jesus will certainly confirm 
the lines of the poet, in " Asleep in Jesus, Blessed 
Sleep, from which none ever wake to weep," but 
will awake to rejoice forever and ever. 

We must, we will awake in Him. When 
we carry our friends to the tomb and pass 
them into its enclosure and when we step 
back only to be carried there ourselves short- 
ly; we cannot in Christ believe that we are 
consigning an imm^ortal spirit to a house of 
clay or of stone. No we cannot, having held 
the hand of a dear one until the pulses 
ceased to beat, bathed the brow till the temples 
eyes until they glazed in death, believe that 
we are not to meet these dear ones again; no, if 
in Christ we have lived and died, we must see 
them and we will, in a home where these heart- 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 189 

rending scenes to do not occur. 

Oh, the soul-thrilHng rapture when I view His 
blessed face, and the lustre of his kindly beaming 
eyes. How my full heart will praise Him for 
the mercy, love and grace that prepares for me 
a mansion in the sky. Oh, the dear ones in_ glory 
how they beckon me to come, and our parting at 
the river I recall. To the sweet vales of Eden 
they will sing my welcome home. But I long to 
meet my Saviour first of all. 

Through the gates to the city in a robe of spot- 
less white. He will lead me where no tears will 
^ver fall ; In the glad song of ages I shall mingle 
with delight, but I long to meet my Savior first 
of all." 

" Yes, when my life work is ended, and I cross 
the swelling tide, when the bright and glorious 
morning I shall see ; I shall know my Redeemer, 
when I reach the other side, and His smile will 
Idc the first to welcome me." 

It seems to me now in reverent and expectant 
mood I can almost hear the refrain and echo 
from Heaven, of the ten thousand times ten thou- 
sand of the redeemed of God, singing their heav- 
enly strains. Certainly if apparently lifeless trees, 
meadows, gardens and all nature that seems so 
pulseless and still, awake in the springtime res- 
urrection in such a grand symphony and in such 
enchanting loveliness, can we not expect of these 
•souls of ours a thousandfold more glory in their 
felicities in their new and perfect bodies in the 
dawn of the new day? We shall trust Christ in 
his saying, " I am the resurrection and the life ; " 
and we shall indeed live with him in resurrection 
morn. Since home is so charming a word here 
on earth, with so many sacred memories, I be- 
lieve, among the first things I shall hear in 
lieaven shall be Home, Welcome Home, and that 
alone will enrapture my soul ; that will be the 
sequence and culminating glory of all that I have 



190 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

anticipated in the sacred circles of the home 
and the Church on earth. 

To any one sick on earth, and away from home, 
the first thought and desire, whether on battle- 
field in far-off country, anywhere, the yearning 
is for home, and the passion only increases in the 
soul, when so many of its companions of an 
earthly home have gone beyond, to go to the 
great reunion and home in Heaven ; every de- 
parting friend here increases our desire to be 
there: if the pilgrims of the '* wilderness " jour- 
ney to the " promised land " were ecstatic and 
so rapturous in entering Canaan, how much 
more our souls in entering our Heavenly Canaan 
and Home : Yes, sweeter fields will be beyond 
the " swelling flood." Some grand souls have 
had such foretastes and visions of their Home in 
Heaven, that their souls, yet while in suffering 
bodies, were enraptured and they were uncon- 
cerned for any and all things on earth ; the la- 
mented D. L. Moody being one of the later saints 
of whom this could be said. 

Some of the surprises in entering our heavenly 
home will be as suggested by John Newton. 
" When I get to Heaven I shall see three won- 
ders there. The first wonder will be to see the 
people there I did not expect; second will be to 
miss many persons whom I did expect to see ; and 
the third and greatest wonder of all will be to 
find myself there." 

What embarrassment it would be to us, even if 
permitted entrance to Heaven, and not having 
had the acquaintance on earth of the central ob- 
ject of Heaven, Jesus Christ? Ah, when we 
put out to sea, may it be that in the language of 
Tennyson, we may be assured that we shall see 
and know our Pilot when we have crossed the 
bar. 

Sunset and evening star 

And one clear call for me, 
And may there be no moaning of the bar 

When I put out to Sea. 



THS THREE CIRCLES. 191 



Twilight and evening bell, 

And after that the dark! 
And may there be no sadness of farewell 

When I embark. 

For though from out our bower of time and place 

The flood may bear me far, 
I hope to see my PILOT face to face, 

When I nave crossed the bar! 

Oh, blessed words of HOME, HEAVEN, 
more charming than palace and mansion. The 
thought of home thrills us and makes our hearts 
beat faster ; what a comforting thought to every 
dying saint I am going home to join that blessed 
completed Eternal Circle of HOME. If through 
our dull and heavy senses in sick and weary bod- 
ies we are enraptured at the thought of the Heav- 
enly city the New' Jerusalem with golden streets 
of be jeweled walls, gates of pearl, of never fad- 
ing flowers, of rippling rivers o'er golden sands, 
shimmering seas in transparent clearness, reveal- 
ing sparkling diamonds and beautiful pearls ; of 
angelic songs that yield us supreme delight. Yes, 
the cloudless blue vault of sky and the flashing 
and glittering of eternal stars, all this and ten 
thousand times more anticipations, pale into in- 
significance as to what our Heavenly Home will 
actually be, in Spiritual glory; and even all at 
best, loses excellence in comparison with the joy 
that we are to have in our Redeemer's Eternal 
presence. 

" We speak of the realms of the blessed, 
Of that country so bright and so fair; 
And oft are its beauties confessed; 
But what must it be to be there? 

We speak of the pathways of gold. 

Of its walls decked with jewels so rare, 

Of its wonders and pleasures untold; 
But what must it be to be there? " 

RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN. 

" Blest be the tie that binds 

Our hearts in Christian Love; 
The fellowship of kindred minds 
Is like to that above. 

When we asunder part. 

It gives us inward pain; 
But we shall still be joined in heart, 
. • And hope to meet again. 



192 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

From sorrow, toil and pain ' 

And sin, we shall be free; 
And, perfect love and friendship reign 

Through all Eternity." 

After the long journey across the country, 
trains are rolHng into depots, after the stormy 
voyage o'er the sea, vessels are landing, and at 
wharf and station bands are playing ; in the great 
city men are marching; as we land we see great 
throngs of friends in earnest, longing expectant 
gaze, eying every one to catch a glimpse of their 
expected guest — often their dearest earthly 
friend. Oh, what a sight when these friends meet 
friends, in their glad embraces and hearty wel- 
comes : the happy look in each other's eyes, is 
beyond language of human tongue to describe : 
soon the voyagers find themselves a part of the 
great surging throng of the city and are inter- 
ested in the great events in which it is interested ;. 
but rather in many cases w6 see these dear friends 
take their loved ones to "their own homes, and 
there gather in sweet communion and friendship 
apart from the great outer city; there they tell 
of each other's life and experience while absent 
the one from the other. But, alas ! I see some as 
anxiously waiting and looking for dear ones that 
do not appear, and I see their faces sadden as 
they return to their homes without the loved 
ones, with the blessed guest chamber yet unoc- 
cupied by their friend. 

Again, especially is it sad, to see friends land,, 
looking, hoping and expecting dear friends to 
meet them, but they do not find them ; either their 
friends not knowing of their coming, or being so 
indifferent that they did not concern themselves 
to come and meet and greet them. 

How in many v/ays this landing on the shores 
eternal, after life's stormiy voyage is over, will 
resemble the earthly meetings of loved ones from 
over land and sea. It is almost as evident as life 
itself, that whatever new or changed form our 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 193 

souls shall inhabit in another world, they will be 
so nearly, even in their perfection, like and iden- 
tical to the ones that we have inhabited here, that 
we shall certainly recognize them at once ; even 
if the new bodies and forms are so refashioned 
and changed that in their bodies we should not 
recognize them thus we should know them by 
their evident spirit, life and soul shining and 
manifesting itself through any form. 

Oh, happy day, my soul is enraptured at the 
thought of that day, when I shall meet my dear 
sainted mother, so long ago departed, and my 
darling child, shall I know them? why should I 
not know them ? how could I help knowing them ? 
they will be there in waiting for me, and besides 
the guardian Angel will guide and tell them and 
me. Oh, not only these dear ones, but all the 
other dear departed ones. The number of them 
flood my mind and the number also increasing as 
the years go on ; and above all I shall see and 
know my dear Redeemer who has made all this 
possible. I doubt not, that with the earthly land- 
ing of friends and their going to the homes of 
their loved ones for sweet fellowship and com- 
munion and loving retrospect and prospect, I 
shall also in Heaven first care to converse with 
the dear ones I have known on earth and then 
doubtless like in the earthly city, I shall desire to 
enlarge my acquaintance; I shall want to meet 
the dear old Abraham and Moses, David, Elijah, 
Isaiah, Daniel, Paul, John, and Peter ; oh ! my 
soul is thrilled at the very thought of those 
grand old heroes, and then, too, those great 
passionate souls, who have charmed me in psalm, 
poem, song ; and all that has electrified and thrill- 
ed my intellectual, moral and religious nature in 
this world. Oh, I shall want to meet them and I 
almost feel I shall know them, too, even if not 
introduced to them by the dear Angels of God. 

Dear reader, is not the thought of your meet- 



194 THE THREE CIRCLES. ^^ 

ing father, mother, sister, brother and the dear 
children whose hands you have held and brows 
bathed and eyes beheld, till the last pulse beat; 
the last heart throb and the last recognition of 
the eye and you realized that never again on 
earth should you meet them, can you not, will 
you not, live, trust, hope and believe that you 
shall meet and know your dear departed ones in a 
home eternal? 

Why did God attune this harp of our being 
with so many strings, that every breeze of joy or 
sorrow sweeping o'er it sets our whole being 
aglow with joy, or throbbing in sorrow. Why 
are we ever permitted to cherish these dear ones 
on earth and the hope of meeting and knowing 
them in Heaven if these desires and fond hopes 
are not to be realized. Oh, they must be, they 
will be of Him who has promised and always ful- 
fills. If not, why are we permitted to think and 
sing. 

" One sweetly solemn thought comes to me o'er and o'er, 
I'm nearer home today than I ever have been before; 
Nearer my Father's house, where the many mansions be, 
Nearer the great white throne, nearer the crystal sea." 

Or why this dear old hymn, " There is a land 
of pure delight, where saints immortal reign ; 
There everlasting spring abides and never with- 
ering flowers, etc.," or this one, *' I will sing you 
a song of that beautiful land, The far-away home 
of the soul ; where no storms ever beat on that 
glittering strand ; while the years of eternity roll. 
Oh, that home of the soul in my visions and 
dreams, its bright jasper walls I can see; Till I 
fancy but thinly the veil intervenes between that 
fair city and me." 

And this : 

" Oh, how sweet it will be in that beautiful land, 
So free from all sorrow and pain; 
With songs on our lips and with harps in our hands, 
To meet one another again." 

Or: 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 19& 



' My latest sun is sinking fast, 

My race is nearly run; 
My strongest trials now are past, 
My triumph is beyond. 

I know I am nearing the holy ranks 
Of friends and kindred dear, 

For I brush the dews on Jordan's banks, 
The crossing must be near. 

I've almost gained my heavenly home. 

My spirit loudly sings; 
The holy ones, behold they come! 

I hear the noise of wings. 

Oh, bear my loving heart to Him, 

Who bled and died for me; 
Whose blood now cleanses trom all sin, 

And gives me victory." 



O, come, angel band, 

Come and around me stand, 

O, bear me away on your snowy wings. 

To my immortal home. 

"Think of the home over there: By the side of the river of 

life." 
" Some one will enter the pearly gates, bye and bye," 
" Soon will come the setting sun, when our work will be done," 
" When the mists have rolled in splendor from the beauty of the 

hills." 

No, God never attuned another being to these 
songs eternal as he has man, there is no other 
answer to them in the heart than that we are to 
sing then bye and bye. 

Never mind if we cannot sing in accord here, 
we will be able to there : it is said that harmonious 
and discordant sounds blending near the earth, 
when arising to a certain point in the air form 
into perfect harmony; and so these discords and 
confusions of the soul's song here, will blend in 
perfect accord and harmony in Heaven. There 
the soul will be attuned in a perfect instrument, 
and its praise will be tuneful and glorious. Our 
earthly home circles are broken again and again, 
and the walls of our homes are covered with the 
shadows and likenesses of those we have loved 
and that have gone from our circle of home to 
the larger circle of the Heavenly Home ; but we 
will not need these likenesses to identify them. 
We shall know them certainly at sight. 



196 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

Again, if a thousand babes are in a place and 
a hundred of them should cry at once, the mother 
would be struck by the key note in the voice of 
her own child, and could select it from all others ; 
or if it should crow or laugh or prattle, she will 
as certainly be able to select her own from all 
others in the glory world, even if the child's 
guardian Angel should not direct. 

I remember reading a story something like this 
once: Some Indians stole a lovely boy and girl 
and they were lost for years ; a camp of Indians 
encamping not far from the home of the sorrow- 
ing mother, she was persuaded to go and see, if 
among others her child might not be in the camp. 
She had looked carefully and was about to start 
home in disappointment, when she thought of a 
lovely lullaby she used to sing, and started to 
sing it, and her own children ran to her ; they 
recognized their mother in the old home and 
cradle song ; so it is these songs of the soul ; if 
the mother in Heaven should not at first recog- 
nize her child the child ana mother will certainly 
recognize each other as they sing the songs of 
yore. 

Ah, as we near the end of this life those dear 
faces and voices we have seen and heard in other 
years will reappear to us, even if we have not 
thought of them recently ; this is, I think, only the 
awakening of our latent senses to what we shall 
soon realize as we pass up and on into the home 
where they have gone: this is one of the strong- 
est bonds between earth and heaven ;, the more 
friends we have in any place, the more we are 
interested in that place. I read recently of a man 
who said he had not had much interest in a cer- 
tain city, till his daughter married and went there 
to live; then he became deeply interested in all 
that occurred in that city. 

So with the Heavenly City, many who are en- 
tirely unconcerned, before the departure of some 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 197 

of' their loved ones, are very much interested in 
all that pertains to Heaven and the future home 
thereafter ; this showing God's love often in thus 
bringing souls into liis Kingdom on Earth 
through the calling of friends into his Heavenly 
Kingdom. 

There will evidently be surprises in recognizing 
friends that have been won by some service that 
at the time seemed slight. A sermon preached 
that left the preacher sad hearted, feeling there 
was no response, has proven that it lodged in the 
heart of a young man which afterwards led him 
into the ministry where he led many to Christ ; 
and doubtless weary Sunday School teachers as 
well, disheartened at no immediate fruit of teach- 
ing, have learned later in life that the teaching 
resulted in the salvation of many of the class ; 
many will doubtless testify in Heaven of their 
being there by the aid of these ministers and 
teachers ; and also many more by these appar- 
ently lesser ministries, as suggested in Matt. 25, 
"In as much as ye have done it unto one of the 
least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto 
me." 

Oh, how blessed are many family reunions of 
earth ; what joy and felicity, when children, 
grandchildren and members of the home, sep- 
arated for years, return to the old home ; and in- 
creasingly dear, since the last reunion the circle 
has been broken to increase the circle of Heaven, 

Oh, yes ; Heaven is to be a social state and we 
are indeed to know each other there. Heaven is 
not solitude ; it is not a hermitage ; it is a home 
and in a home v/e must know and love all ; we 
will not remain strangers in this home ; real life 
is communion and companionship ; we shall knov/ 
each other in that wx essentially will be the same 
there as here, simply immortalized. Ah, when we 
hear '' Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to 
dust " we know it is not said of the soul, but of 



198 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

the body. The same shall be said of us, or over 
our bodies when we have gone to a fellowship 
with the one we have just conveyed to the tomb. 
Oh, no, dear departed ones, we would not recall 
you but would be in readiness to meet you when 
Jesus comes and calls for us. Every Christian 
leaving earth adds a star to the shining Heaven, 
and every family circle broken here adds to the 
one above. Yes, our dear ones have gone to^ 
dwell with the living. 

The dead, or each departed friend with whom 
we keep in memory day by day in hope and ex- 
pectation of meeting bye and bye, helps to keep 
our present lives sweeter, purer, holier. Such 
aspirations and anticipation draw us upward and 
onward toward our home in Heaven. Such will 
make Heaven on earth more real to us; a place 
where loved ones are and above all our Savior. 

THE FAMILY MEETING. 

We are all here! 

Father, mother, sister, brother, 

All who hold each other dear. 

Each chair is fill'd; we're all, at home; 
Tonight, let no cold stranger come; 
It is not often thus around 
Our old familiar hearth we're found; 
Bless then the meeting and the spot; 
For once, be every care forgot; 
Let gentle Peace assert her power, 
And kind Affection rule the hour; 

We're All — all here. 

We're not all here! 
Some are away, the dead ones dear, 
Who thronged with us this ancient hearth. 
And gave the hour to guiltless mirth. 
Fate, with a stern, relentless hand, 
Look'd in and thinn'd our little band; 
Some like a night-flash, pass'd away, 
And some sank lingering day by day; 
The quiet graveyard — some lie there — 
And cruel ocean has his share: 

We are not all here! 

We are all here! 
Even they, the dead, — though dead, so dear, 
Fond Memory to her duty true. 
Brings back their faded forms to view. 
How life-like through the mist of years, 
Each well-remembered face appears! 
We see them as in time long past. 
From each to each kind looks are cast; 
: We hear their words, their smiles behold, 

"They're round us, as they were of old — 
We are all here! 



THE TrIRSE CIRCLES. 199 



We arc all here! 

Father, mother, sister, brother, 

You that I love with love so dear. 
This may not long of us be said; 
Soon must we join the gather'd dead, 
And by the hearth we not sit round, 
Some other circle will be found. 
Oh! then, that wisdom may know. 
Which yields a life of peace below; 
So, in the world to follow this, 
May each repeat, in words of bliss, 
We're all — all — here. 

— Charles Sprague. 

RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN. 

Shall we know our friends in heaven — 

Kindred souls while here below? 
Will the pleasures there be given 

Recognizing those we know? 
Yes, the scriptures plainly telleth. 

We shall know as we are known, 
Songs of gracious welcome swelleth, 

Sung by seraphs round the throne! 

See yon happy mother finding. 

One by one her children dear; 
Family ties forever binding. 

None are missing — all are here! 
Wife and husband fondly meeting. 

No more sorrow, death or pain; 
Brothers, sisters, gladly greeting. 

Never more to part again! 

Sundered friends again united. 

Wrong and falsehood all forgiven; 
The pure in heart hath God invited, 

He is Love, and Love is heaven! 
Walking humbly — sins confessing — 

"God and Heaven" our watchword be; 
Praying for the Father's blessing. 

Heaven shall open unto thee! 

Ah! to miss that great reunion, 

Doom'd eternal death to die; 
Nevermore to have communion 

With our friends beyond the sky. 
Worse than death to be rejected, 

Banish'd from that happy throng; 
Never coming — yet expected. 

Shall we miss that welcome song? 



— Jno. Imrie. 



THE MEETING PLACE. 
Where the faded flowers shall freshen, 
Freshen never more to fade; 
Where the shaded sky shall brighten, 
Brighten never more to shade; 
Where the sun blaze never scorches; 
Where the star-beams cease to chill; 
Where no tempest stirs the echoes 
Of the wood, or wave, or hill, 
Where the morn shall wake in gladness, 
And the moon, the joy prolong; 
Where the daylight dies in fragrance 
'Mid the burst of holy song. 
Brother, we shall meet and rest 
'Mid the holy and the blest. 



200 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

Where no shadow shall bewilder; ' 

Where life's vain parade is o'er; 

Where the sleep of sin is broken. 

And the dreamer dreams no more; 

Where the bond is never severed — 

Partings, claspings, sobs, and moan. 

Midnight waking, twilight weeping. 

Heavy noon-tide — all are done; 

Where the child has found its mother, 

Where the mother finds the child; 

Where dear families are gathered 

That were scattered on the wild — 

Brother, we shall meet, and rest 

'Mid the holy and the blest. — Bonar. 

OUR ANGEL FRIENDS IN HEAVEN. 

It has long been concluded in the minds of 
many, that we are constantly attended by these 
heavenly ministrants, and that each soul on earth 
has an angel guide hidden, to be sure, from mor- 
tal view, yet in real invisible presence, to prompt 
us to any good and true thought and deed, being 
aggrieved and pained at evil in our thoughts and 
actions ; what a blessed thought then to think of 
this loving spirit following us in all our various 
paths — rejoicing in our victories and conquests, 
and saddened at our defeats and losses ; but we 
are somewhat depressed at the thought, that as 
some claim, there is as well for each of us, an 
evil angel, that as certainly accompanies us too 
in every way, prompting us to evil and rejoicing 
at our failings. Yet each allowing this I must 
find comfort in the thought and fact that the 
Holy Spirit comes to the rescue with my good 
angel, which gives me strength in which I can 
dispel the evil angel, and the mischief he would 
have me do at any time, if I am only faithful 
and on constant guard. We see in the word of 
God, the subject of angels is an important one, 
they being referred to so often they seemed to 
have been on hand at the beginning of things. 
Some insist that they have the purest material 
bodies and others that they are simply pure 
spirits with no bodies. In whatever capacity — 
whether as embassies in great numbers, or single 
ones, on their missions ; whether to sing or to 




WHERE THE CHILD HAS FOUND ITS MOTHER; 
WHERE THE MOTHER HAS FOUND THE CHILD 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 201 

converse with God's likeness in man on earth ; 
they have evidenced rationaUty, purity and per- 
fect obedience, to the King and Kingdom of 
Heaven. We are told when Christ shall re- 
appear on earth these lovely ministrants shall 
come before to herald His coming. Oh, what a 
rapturous sight it will be to see the Christ com- 
ing in the clouds and in glory accompanied by 
this livery of Heaven. 

They seem to embarrass guilty mortals by their 
purity and saintly presence, rather than by anger 
or wrath; they teach us humility in that they 
themselves veil their faces, before the throne of 
glory on which Jesus sits, as they cast their 
crowns in adoration before Him ; their message 
is ever, '' Peace on earth, good will to man." 
We are told too of their rejoicing in a soul's sal- 
vation. Let us know that to realize their pleas- 
ure, we must live near Jesus. How many es- 
pecially among children in dying have claimed 
to have seen these blessed ministers from Heaven 
coming for them (see p. 139: The dying vision 
of the child), and older saints also — why not^ 
is there a sublimer or sweeter thought than that 
they will be on hand at this trying time, to con- 
vey us home. Well may thou ask, '' Oh, come, 
angel band ; come and around me stand ; oh, beai 
me away on your snowy wing to my mortal 
home." 

OUR CHILDREN IN HEAVEN. 

When Christ honored the child above all oth- 
ers ; when He made the child life in its inno« 
cency and purity, as a standard and measure for 
man by which he could enter His Kingdom, 
He bestowed a wonderful honor on the child; 
yet not too much, for if innocence, purity and 
beauty is to be found in any of God's creatures 
on earth it surely is in the innocent little child, 
dependent, confiding, trustful and faithful, and 



202 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

this it would ever be, but for the environment 
about it in older life. Ah, it is no wonder that 
the Master has such fearful reproaches, for one 
who would offend or cause one of them to stum- 
ble or fall. What grand assistants they are to 
angels; how they lead, through their innocency 
and love many to a knowledge of the Savior, 
who but for them would never be won or saved ; 
they have touched hard-hearted criminals and 
melted them to tears when the profoundest plead- 
ings of older ones have failed to make the slight- 
est impression upon them. 

Alas ! for the man or woman who dares not 
love a dear, innocent child; in such a one 
there must be something radically wrong, some- 
thing that is abnormal and not in touch with the 
loving Christ, who makes the child so important. 

The loving, smiling child does so often lighten 
the life and burden of a weary mother, who 
.but for this would falter and fail, and so 
often a weary, toiling father in returning to his 
home is paid much more in the prattle, smiles 
and love of his child than in what he has received 
in dollars and cents from his daily toil. Who^ 
•ever heard a great company of children singing 
their sweet praise to Jesus and did not, when he 
stopped to think, believe they were in league 
with the angels in winning this dark world for 
Christ? It seems to me that if there is anything 
on earth that will touch the barrenness and alloy 
in the human heart of sin, it is the innocent, pure 
and unselfish plea of a child. Ah, what but the 
hardest heart could resist its pleadings. Is it 
any wonder that Christ in His preparing man- 
sions for us, and in His beautifying and adorn- 
ing His Heavenly garden stoops down to earth 
and from His garden here, plucks one of these 
little flowers so often, not only for its beauty and 
loveliness and His need of it for His Heavenly 
garden, but also that it may thus be the means 




VISIONS OF THE DYING CHILD. 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 203 

of drawing its parents after it; the thought of 
seeing great multitudes of them in all their inno- 
cence and beauty in Heaven is of itself enough 
to make us yearn and strive very hard for such 
a place; in fact Heaven would not be Heaven 
without them. Oh, parents, do not fret over the 
future of your child called away; when as 
pure as it is and as ready for Heaven, may you 
not feel happy indeed ; one mother was thankful, 
she said, " That she had a flower that the Savior 
desired for His Heavenly Kingdom." Oh, much 
as it breaks our hearts, we instinctively feel as 
we bend over the lifeless form of a dear babe, 
that it is far better off than if it had been left in 
the world of sin. 

Most certainly their little minds and souls will 
begin to unfold as soon as they reach Heaven, 
and so much more rapidly in that pure, uninter- 
rupted clime where there is no sin to impede its 
unfolding and developing under the instructions 
unfoldment and progress as would be its danger 
on earth ; think of it there unfolding and develop- 
ing under the instructions and guidance of the 
angels ; who can think of Christ when on earth so 
simply taking little children into His arms and 
blessing them and not love both Christ and the 
children ? 

Oh, why do we not oftener look up into the 
face of Him who so dearly loves the children for 
their innocence and purity, and ask Him to help 
us to resemble these dear little ones in innocence, 
purity, humility, trust and teachableness of spirit ? 
Heaven will be larger in having these friends 
there. Money will not be a medium of exchange 
there; something purer than pure gold will be 
our joy in that of these loving friends. 

Ah, dear reader, you may console yourself that 
your home circle is not broken ; bear in mind it 
will not ever remain so; either yourself or some 
of your loved ones will likely sooner than you 



204 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

anticipate, break it to join the great Heavenly- 
circle. Each time the circle of home on earth 
is broken it becomes smaller, and let us hope that 
the circle of home in Heaven is increased in pro- 
portion as it is decreased on earth. 

Oh, for that happy reunion day above all other 
great reunion days of families on earth; that day 
when all the glorified families of earth are gath- 
ered around the throne of our Heavenly Father. 

OUR EMPLOYMENT IN HEAVEN. 
nature's completion. 
God allows all creatures except man to com- 
plete themselves; vegetation, flowers, trees and 
all the animal creation, seem under proper en- 
vironment and culture to arrive at full maturity, 
bloom and perfection, but man in intellectual and 
moral nature, even under the most promising 
conditions seems never to have satisfied himself ; 
let us find him among the greatest in all the de- 
partments of life, art, science, literature, medi- 
cine, chemistry, mechanics, invention, music, 
philosophy and religion ; even though at the high- 
est point of success, he is yet dissatisfied with 
himself and his attainments ; the more he has at- 
tained and accomplished, the more he sees there 
is yet to attain, and as he nears his former ideals 
in accomplishments the more he advances his 
ideals, still higher and farther from his present 
:attainments, and however near the Master he 
may have lived, he longs for closer and sweeter 
communion and fellowship, raising his ideas of 
the Savior still higher with thousands of ques- 
tions and desires as to the why and wherefore of 
things ; with so many things locked and no key 
of knowledge to open their contents ; and at the 
end of it all almost a passion to know more ; and 
being in ever so sweet and close communion and 
fellowship with Christ he still yearns for a closer 
relationship; all this not only points to life's in- 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 205 

completeness as it ends here, but it is strong pre- 
sumptive evidence, that the things that have so 
deeply engaged our intellectual natures here will 
under unlimited privileges there be granted us ; 
also that we may continue on and on as to our 
soul's desires, they shall be allowed expansion, 
on and on forever ; how much we will be engaged 
in song and praise and in various occupations, 
one more than another we cannot know, but I 
cannot think that Heaven could be a place of 
inaction, for we should indeed be weary of rest; 
even allowing the things that have engaged our 
minds in this life may not engage them in the 
next, it still remains likely that we will be em- 
ployed at something that will give pleasure to 
ourselves and our Redeemer, and whatever it is 
that employs or engages our minds and souls the 
pleasure in them will not pall on or weary us ; 
the soul and intellect are made for life, and life 
demands action ; we certainly to be happy must 
be employed; while the aim of all there will be 
to please God, it will be no less His will to make 
us happy, and He evidently will employ our minds 
and souls as suits our general natures best; if 
mind and soul cultivation is necessary in this life, 
that man may be balanced and symmetrical, 
will it not be so in our new home and sphere, 
where wisdom will certainly be needed that our 
souls may develop and unfold in God's pres- 
ence; our minds will be so undisturbed that we 
may follow an inquiry of it, till the answer and 
information is complete, allowing us then to take 
up another subject of interest and go on and on. 
It seems reasonable that we shall be occupied 
very much in learning of God Himself, and His 
marvelous works. Is it not a sweet antici- 
pation to think of Jesus calling the hosts of " the 
just made perfect," about Him and teaching 
them ; what a privilege it would be to be in a 
Heavenly School and our Savior as Teacher? 



206 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

Supposing every hint, suggestion and antici- 
pation as to Heaven in these pages to be in error, 
as to the reader's mind and conclusion, one thing, 
however, will remain true and that is, that what- 
ever our occupation or employment, it will be 
happiness in the presence of Jesus. Certainly 
these yearnings, questionings, passions and de- 
sires for knowledge, that remain with us all 
through life unanswered;, all the uncompleted 
tasks ; all the unfulfilled and unfinished purposes 
and plans ; all the tasks of the greatest as well as 
of lesser souls, will most surely have their answer 
and their completion in another life of uninter- 
rupted and ever-increasing joy, in doing the 
things that employ the minds and the souls of 
the inhabitants of the glory world. 

OUR PLACE AND STATE IN HEAVEN. 

Watts suggests Heaven as a place when he 
says: 

" There is a land of pure delight, 
Where saints immortal reign; 
Eternal day excludes the night, 
And pleasures banish pain. 

There, everlasting spring abides, 
And never withering flowers, 
Death like a narrow sea divides 
This Heavenly land from ours." 

Some insist that Heaven is in state and in the 
soul consciousness only, but we see no reason 
why it may not be a place as well ; at least it 
seems to fit not only into our childhood concep- 
tions and the teachings of most of us, but even 
in later and maturer knowledge it seems natural 
and very satisfactory to think of Heaven as a 
place, and in the words of our Savior He cer- 
tainly leads us to believe in a place of abode : I 
go to prepare a " place " He says, not a " state," 
and again, " in My Father's house are many man- 
sions " ; we may be wide of the mark of the re- 
ality of Heaven in our descriptions as, a city with 
golden streets, of jasper walls, of flowers, fruits, 
trees, hills and vales, but we are inclined to be- 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 207 

tieve these things in some sense shall be verified 
to us. Ah, suppose it is not at all a place like we 
anticipate ; whatever it is, it must be glorious be- 
cause of the presence of Christ, the glorious 
perfecter and finisher of all things lovely ; where- 
ever it be in place or state, it will transcend any 
anticipation of ours. 

The first Eden was a place, and in it no sin, 
and why not the second a perfect place of God ; 
yet after all the second must be far superior to 
the first. 

Be it a place or state or both in one, its joys 
and glories will be measureless and infinite, and 
that is enough for finite minds at present to 
know. If the most blessed condition of soul is 
ours, we need not annoy ourselves in what can- 
not certainly be known until we awake in Him. 
To be sure, it is conceivable that Heaven may be 
only a state or condition in the absence of a place, 
but we believe, all our associations in this world 
in which we are connected with countries, cities, 
homes, habitations, houses, fields, trees, rivers, 
mountains and seas, all these it seems mirror to 
us something, even if " through a glass darkly " 
of the places of Heaven. In the sense of 
" Heaven being within us " it certainly is a state 
and this to be sure is one of the first essentials 
and requisites ; but there still remains no reason 
why, having a state or condition within us, we 
may not be in a place as well; this is true of us 
here and as reasonable that it may be hereafter. 
We in our spiritual state and condition in our 
places of worship and sweet fellowship sing, 
" Blest be the tie that binds " with a Heavenly 
frame of mind within us, while we are in a place 
— the church or place of worship — it seems this 
is analogous to what might be of Heaven. 

In conclusion, there is surely no harm in our 
anticipation of a city with walls, palaces, man- 
sions, homes, streets of pure gold, beautiful 



208 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

winged creatures in the air, lovely songs and the 
most entrancing music, ever blooming and fra- 
grant flowers, and all other creatures, that give 
our senses pleasure and enjoyment; here at best 
we only *' see through a glass darkly " ; then we 
shall see and hear and know perfectly. In any 
event our inward senses and state will co-operate 
with any outward condition with which we shall 
be surrounded, and that insures happiness. If 
God takes anything from us that we enjoy in this 
life. He will replace it by something better in the 
next. 

THE BETTER LAND. 

" I hear thee speak of the better land; 
Thou call'st its children a happy band! 
Mother! where is that radiant shore? 
Shall we not seek it, and weep no more? 
Is it where the flower of the orange blows, 
And the fireflies dance through the myrtle boughs? "' 
"Not there, not there, my child!" 

" Is it where the feathery palm trees rise. 
And the date grows ripe under sunny skies? 
Or 'mid the green islands of the glittering seas, 
Where fragrant forests perfume the breeze. 
And strange bright birds, on their starry wings, 
Bear the rich hues of all glorious things? " 
" Not there, not there, my child! " 

" Is it far away in some region old. 
Where the rivers wander o'er sands of gold, 
Where the burning rays of the ruby shine. 
And the diamond lights up the secret mine, 
And the pearl gleams forth from the coral strand? 
Is it there, sweet mother, that better land? " 
" Not there, not there, my child! " 

" Eye hath not seen it, my gentle boy. 
Ear hath not heard its deep sounds of joy; 
Dreams cannot picture a world so fair; 
Sorrow and death may not enter there; 
Time doth not breathe on its fadeless bloom. 
Beyond the clouds, and beyond the tomb; 
It is there, it is there, my child! " 

— Mrs. Hemans. 

OUR POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE JOYS IN HEAVEN. 

I suggest that the absolute certainty of Jesus' 
presence in Heaven should give us a grand 
foretaste of one of its most positive joys. An- 
other joy will be the joy of song and praise, 
in that the songs will be from joyful singers ,', 
what a grand symphony there will be in the num- 




THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 209 

ber of the redeemed in praise of the Redeemer. 
Ah, if orchestras and symphonies and concerts; 
if carols, anthems and antiphonals charm, en- 
trance and enrapture us here, with our imperfect 
ears, dulled and disconcerted by the aches and 
pains of our bodies, and the jarring, confusing 
sounds of earth ; if in all this confusion our souls 
are thrilled and ravished from souls and bodies 
of men and women who are as much in confusion 
as are we ; if such charm comes from imperfect 
bodies and souls, what will it be to hear the an- 
gelic choirs in all their holiness and purity, sing 
the perfect songs to our perfected ears, to our 
pure and holy spirits? Ah, even those who can- 
not sing here will be so attuned of God, and so in 
harmony with praise to Him that the songs of 
Heaven will be a joy to them. 

Many of the joys of Heaven have in other con- 
nections been spoken of, and the positive joys are 
often more easily anticipated in their contrast to 
their negative; the joys will be unlimited, perfect 
and praise out of perfect hearts. 

Often a more satisfying way to contemplate 
the blessings of Heaven is to think of their coun- 
terpart and opposite ; to all that distracts or dis- 
concerts our lives in this world, as in thinking 
of what is not the condition there we think of 
what it is. Such as : No sickness, pain, suffer- 
ing, lying, envy, malice, slander, murder, impu- 
rity, deception, treachery, death, separation, dark- 
ness, frosts ; synonyms and antonyms in our mind 
will convey the things that are and are not in 
that glorious home in Heaven. 

Whatever we find on earth to give us unhap- 
piness we will find its opposite in Heaven as our 
blessing and joy. We cannot think of fading 
flowers in Heaven. We cannot think of night 
here without thinking of no night in Heaven. 
Cannot think of sickness, suffering, pain and 
death here, and not think of bodies in Heaven 



210 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

where there will be none of these; and we 
cannot think of wars, famines, fire and flood 
and not think of Heaven not having any of them» 
In every deep sorrow, bereavement, here our 
hearts turn instinctively to Christ and Heaven, 
where there will be no sorrow. 

" There'll be no sorrow there, there'll be no sorrow there. 

In Heaven above where all is love, there'll be no sorrow there." 

HEAVEN ACCORDING TO OUR DESIRES AND NEEDS. 

Heavenly joys shall be like the tree of life in 
the New Jerusalem, which brings forth twelve 
manners of fruits, and yields its fruit every 
month. Robert Hall used to cry : " O, for the 
everlasting rest ! " But V/ilberforce would sigh 
to dwell in unbroken love. Hall was a man who 
suffered ; he longed for rest. Wilberforce was a 
man of amiable spirit, loving society and fellow- 
ship ; he longed for love. Hall shall have his 
rest and Wilberforce shall have his love. There 
are joys at God's right hand, suitable for the 
spiritual tastes of all those who come thither. 
The Heavenly Manna tastes to every man's pe- 
culiar liking. — Spurgeon. 

ONE. 

" One family we dwell in Him, 
One Church above, beneath; 
Though now divided by the stream — 
The narrow stream of death. 
One army of the living God, 
To His command we bow; 
Part of the host have crossed the flood. 
And some are crossing now." 
" When we've been there ten thousand years, 
Bright shining as the sun. 
We've no less days to sing God's praise 
Than when we first begun." 

OUR GLORY IN HEAVEN. 

I am almost spellbound at times in first Cor. 
15 ch., in Paul's forceful balancing and contrast- 
ing of mortal and immortal bodies ; of the earthly 
and the Heavenly ; of the corruptible and the in- 
corruptible ; the natural and the spiritual. How 
that in this life the most beautiful form of a body 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 211 

must age, ache, suffer, shrink, wrinkle and finally 
perish ; is it not enough to charm and enchant us 
at the thought of having bodies that will be 
beautiful, never aching, never weary, never per- 
ishing and such as a loving God can and will sup- 
ply for our immortal spirits? We cannot 
describe these glorified bodies, but it is enough 
to know they will be God formed and God given. 
Oh, if God in nature can take the ugly worm of 
the dust and develop it into the beautiful winged 
butterfly ; if He can out of the unsightly and un- 
fragrant bulb bring forth a beautiful, fragrant 
flower ; if He can in His immanence, out of hun- 
dreds of species of eggs, bring out all the winged 
creatures of the air, in all their varied forms and 
kinds ; if He can brin^ out of a world of vegeta- 
tion, apparently lifeless, of forests, of valleys and 
hills, of gardens and fields, all brown and sear; 
if out of all this He can bring a resurrection, new 
life, verdure, bloom, fragrance, glory even here 
on earth, what may He not bring to us, His 
creatures, in His own image and likeness in 
glory, in the place and state where He plans our 
perfection and glory. Oh, our hope too is in 
that we are life and our glory will be increased 
as we remain in life with God; a diamond is 
always a diamond and never more or less, while 
we as human souls being glorified doubtless shall 
unfold in beauty forever. We will not discuss 
the probability that our future bodies will be 
highly sublimated ; nor that ethereial substances 
shall be theirs ; nor that they shall be this or that, 
but that whatever of God they are to be, they will 
be pleasing to Him and to us. They are to be 
" raised in power " ; and are to be unlimited in 
flight and action doubtless ; and we are taught of 
Paul, too, as well as of our Lord that our bodies 
will be glorified, their celestial glory being far 
beyond the terrestrial. It is thought by some 
that our bodies in Heaven will be light and 



212 THE THREE CIRCLES. 

shining with a halo and radiance about them^ 
and this radiance and light simply the bright- 
ness, effulgence and beauty of the soul in the 
bodies. Oh, what a glory ours will be when 
we awake in His likeness and beauty; to think 
too that the body given will be incorruptible 
and will never perish, thrills us ; then the soul 
will not be hindered and held back by an inferior 
body as in this world a glorified soul in our ex- 
alted glorified body shall go on in unfoldment in 
God forever. 

OUR ETERNITY IN HEAVEN. 

The truest end of life is to know the life that 
never ends. — William Penn. 

Forever in the presence of Christ must be 
words most charming to the redeemed and sanc- 
tified soul in His presence ; and the word that is 
so entrancing to the soul saved is certainly the 
most terrible to the one that is lost — '" forever." 

If we were told that even in a century or even 
ten thousand years, our glory and presence with 
Jesus in Heaven is to be interrupted, it would 
spoil our present joys. The soul insists on a 
circle complete in Heaven ; one never to be 
broken. Oh, the glory in the thought of this felic- 
ity and beautiful home of the soul being eternal; 
never out of His presence nor out of that of the 
beloved of God ; so especially pleasing in con- 
trast is this to all even the apparently permanent 
things that fade and pass away in this life. Here 
we are scarcely ushered into a pleasure until 
some condition of time comes and disconcerts us 
and crowds us on. We are in sweetest fellow- 
ship with a friend ; then time, accident and sick- 
ness comes and takes our friends ; and so all 
things of time and sense go flitting so rapidly 
that we hardly enjoy them even when with us, in 
our fearing they are going to depart from us. 
How soon they all go, health, friends, riches. 




CHRIST CALLING A CHILD FROM SLEEP OF 
DEATH TO L[FE AGAIN. 



THE THREE CIRCLES. 2ia 

beauties of nature coming and gone ere we have 
had a good view of them. Oh, what a thought 
that our mansions in heaven and all the glorious 
furnishings of God are to be eternal. How de- 
lightful the contrast on earth and Heaven in 
this, that on earth it is a constant never more or 
no more; while in Heaven it is a constant ever- 
more. 

Wt Shall Sleep, But Not Forever • 

We shall sleep, bu t not forever, 

There vsdll be a gloJious dawn ! 
We shall meet to part, no, never, 

On the Resurrection Morn 1 
From the deepest caves of ocean, 

From the desert and the plain. 
From the valley and the mountain, 

Countless throngs shall rise again. 

When wa see a precious blossom 

That we tended with such care, 
Rudely taken from our bosom, 

How our aching hearts despair ! 
Round its little grave we linger, 

Till the setting sun is low, 
Feeling all our hopes have perished 

With the flower we cherished so. 

We shall sleep, but not forever, 

In the lone and silent grave ; 
Blessed be the Lord that taketh. 

Blessed be the Lord that gave. 
In the bright eternal life 

Death can never, never come ! 
In His own good time He'll call us 

From our rest, to Home, sweet Home. 

"When we've been there ten thousand years. 

Bright shining as the sun, 
We.ve no less days to sing God's praise 

Than when we first begun," 

" Our King says come and there's our home forever, Oh, for- 
ever." 



Constitution 



of 

The Home and Church Circle. 



ARTICLE I.— Name. 

This circle shall be called the Home and Church 
Circle. 

AETICLE II.— Object. 

The object of this Circle shall be the advancement 
of the Kingdom of Christ, as follows, viz: 

1. By a higher ideal and life in the home. 

2. By a faithful Christian training of the young in 
Christian living and for membership in the Church, 
urging more altars in the homes and more homes in the 
church. 

4. By a constant concern for, and care of the aged, 
the sick, the poor and the unfortunate. 

5. By a persistent effort to bring the largest possible 
number of persons v/ithin the circle of a Christian life 
and influence. 

ARTICLE III.— Membership. 

1. Any one interested and in sympathy with the ob- 
ject of this Circle may become a member by attending 
the meetings and giving name to the secretary. 

ARTICLE IV. — Officers and Committees. 

The officers of the Circle should be. President, Vice 
President, Secretary and Treasurer; these being con- 
stituted of the officers of the church, in the order here 
named, viz: Pastor of the Church; Superintendent of 
the Sunday School; the Clerk and Treasurer of the 
church. 

Every member of the Circle is considered a member 
of the personal worker's Committee and is expected to 
do at least some one thing in personal work. 

ARTICLE V. — Prayer and Devotional Meetings. 

It is expected that the members of the Circle, instead 
of instituting a new or difierent week-night meeting, 
will consider the regular church prayer meeting its 



meeting as well as that of the church. When agreeable 
to the pastor and the church, especially selected topics^ 
in harmony with the Circle may be used as the mid- 
week prayer meeting topics. At the close of each 
week-night meeting there shall be a report, from the 
Committee of Members of the Circle, that no need or 
service for which the Circle is organized, shall be neg- 
lected. Business meetings may be called before or at 
the close of the devotional meetings, when deemed 
necessary. 

THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS TO BE ASKED AT THE CLOSE 
OF EACH DEVOTIONAL MEETING. 

1. Are there any sick and in need of visitation and 
care ? 

2. Are there any in misfortune, sorrow or distress 
that we might comfort and relieve ? 

3. Are there any strangers or others in the commu- 
nity, that might be interested in Christ and the 
Church, by a friendly call ? 

4. Is there anything we can do to strengthen and 
help the church in any of the following or other de- 
partments ? Viz: (1) Preaching services; (2) Sunday 
school; (3) Young people's meetings, &c. 

5. Is there anything the church can do to bless and 
help the community? 

These questions being followed by the president or 
leader of the meeting appointing members present or 
absent to attend to the need and fulfillment of the 
above questions. 

ARTICLE VI. — Benevolence and Charity. 

1. This Circle shall urge the constant concern for 
and care of the sick, poor, unfortunate and depraved, 
rendering every possible consistent cheer, comfort, re- 
lief and kindness, 

2. All funds above the running expenses of the Cir- 
cle shall be kept as a special Benefit Fund, by the treas- 
urer, as mutually agreed by the Circle and the Church; 
these funds to be used for worthy poor and needy, and 
only used after a two-thirds vote of the members of the 

Circle, confirmed by a vote of the Church Board; this 
board having the veto power here, as well as elsewhere, 
in all things belonging to the welfare of the Church. 
The Circle or Church treasurer is not to hold more than 
$25 on hand as a Benefit Fund; all above this amount to 
be placed as ordered by the Circle and Church Board, in 
some savings bank or institution, on interest, until 
needed for the object for which it was obtained. 

In case the Circle should disband, this benefit fund 
shall revert to the control of the Church Board, to be 



kept and used for the purpose for which it was ob- 
tained according to the Constitution of this Circle. 

It is expected, that the officials of the Church in 
their annual budget of financial necessities, will plan 
for a special local, benevolence and charity fund secur- 
ing this fund by free will offerings of the people or in 
any way seeming wise and prudent. The fund will of- 
ten be contributed to by persons who would not give to 
the Church in any other way; there being few in any 
community not willing to assist their fellow beings in 
destitution and distress. Accident, sickness or death 
benefits may be planned for, in mutual fees, dues and 
corresponding benefits. 

ARTICLE VII.— PERSONAL WORK. 

As a privilege, rather than a cold hard duty, it is ex- 
pected that all the members of the Church, at least be- 
come members of the Circle and be cheerfully willing tO' 
take and use some of the personal workers' cards in any 
way seeming sensible and best to themselves ;also to be in 
readiness at the regular devotional or other meetings of 
the Circle to respond to any call to visit the sick or in 
other need, trying in the name of Christ to bless, cheer 
and brighten as many lives as possible and also to lead 
many into the Circle of a Christian life and influence. 
ARTICLE VIII — Fellowship and Fraternity. 

1. The members of this Circle are ever to bear in 
mind that the Home should should be the training and 
disciplining place for the Church Circle, and that both 
Home and Church should be in constant training and 
preparation for the Heavenly Circle. 

2. While each local Circle shall be a part and de- 
partment of the Church in which it is organized, and 
is to be loyal to its individual interests, it is neverthe- 
less, to be non-sectarian and non-denominational in 
spirit, and when a number of local Circles meet in 
conference or convention, such Circles shall meet as 
smaller circles in a larger, for the advancement of the 
Kingdom of Christ in the Home, the Church, and the 
Nation. 

3. For the sake of the Christ-like spirit and a true 
fraternity, members are supposed to make any individ- 
ual concession — when there is no violation of principles 
^for the good of the Circle or the Church, and above 
all for the cause of Christ. 

ARTICLE— IX.— Relationship to the Church and 

ITS Departments. 

1. The object of this Circle, being the advancement 

of the Kingdom of Christ in the Home and the 

Church, and it having its existence, only by the con- 



sent of the Church, it shall be considered a department 
of the Church, but it shall in no way interfere with or 
in any way cross the plans of other departnaents, but it 
is rather to be a help and an ally in every possible con- 
sistent way with the Young People's Society, Sabbath 
School and all other departments. 

•2. The officers of the Church, including the Presi- 
dent of Young People's Society and Superintendent or 
Sabbath School, exofficiis, may be considered members 
of the Circle, and any matter having vital connection 
with the Church must have the approval at least of the 
Church Board; this Board having the veto power over 
any matter of importance of the Circle, relating to the 
Church, and the action of the Board is to be final. 

3. The Pastor of the Church shall be expected to 
have general oversight of the Circle, and advise on all 
important matters and to assist it in its highest useful- 
ness, and the members, are to do their utmost to assist 
the Pastor in all his work for the Church. 

ARTICLE X.— PLEDGES OR vows. 

Members shall be privileged — not compelled as a con- 
dition of membership — to sign the following pledges: 
parent's or guardian's pledge. 

As a parent, (guardian) and member of the Home 
and Church Circle, I promise to try to lead my child 
(children) to a knowledge, love and acceptance of Jesus 
Christ; to see that at least a prayer is offered before 
retiring at night; to strive to so live myself, that I naay 
not be an unworthy model and example in Christian 
living in my home or elsewhere. 



Signed. 



Residence 



member's pledge. 

As a Member of the Home and Church Circle, I 
promise to strive to lead a consistent Christian life in 
my home as well as elsewhere — not only for my own 
benefit in Christian life and experience, but that it 
may be easier for those who associate with me — especi- 
ally in the home, — to lead this Christian life; to try 
each day of my life to render some act of kindness to 
some one in the name of the Master. 
Signed^ 



Residence 



^ [The Constitution is protected by copyright and all 
rights are reserved.] 



Personal mork for Persons. 

"He that winneth souls is wise.,'— Prov. 11-30. 

"I gave my life for thee ; what hast thou given for Me?" 

The Cards on this page are representations of personal workers 
cards we have most exquisitely and neatly printed in two colors, 
blue and gilt, with gilt border and round corner and gilt edges, to 
be used by members of the Home and Church Circle as reason- 
able opportunity presents, either in meeting persons and handing 
them a card, with or without comment, or by mailing a suitable 
card with a letter. The card is so neat and attractive that very 
few would throw it away. In the Master's name very great good 
may be accomplished in this quiet, unobtrusive way— this person- 
al contact way, such as practiced and advised by Christ Himself. 
No blare of trumpet, but personal work for persons. Any Chris- 
tian of any name may use these cards, and a single card handed 
or sent to one, accompanied with a prayer, may be the means of 
saving an immortal soul. If you are timid and feel you cannot 
Speak well, you can at least give a card with a silent prayer. 

These cards are in form like the first on the page, but we cannot 
show you here the effect of the blue and gilt You can buy them 
at 10c a dozen or 75c a hundred. Send order to Burrows Bros., 
or S. C. Hale & Son, Cleveland, Ohio, 

If you have made up your mind to let no day go by without do- 
ing something in the name of the Master get some of these cards 
and at least use one a day. 



De<ir Voung friend: 3e$n$ Coves Von. 

He desires your love and service. Loving and serving Him, 
your life will be a success, otherwise, it cannot be. 
"He that is not with me is against me." 
"If ye love me keep my commandments," — Jesus Christ, 
"Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth."— Solo- 



WILL YOU LOVE, ACCEPT AND SERVE HIM? WHEN? 



6oa Coves you. Cbrist Died to $m Vou. 



"God so loveth the world, that He gave his only begotten Son,. 
that who soever believeth in Him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life."— Jno. 3:16. 

"Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him shall the Son of 
Man also confess before the angels of God."— Luke 12 :8. He that 
is not with Me is against Me."— Luke 11 :23. 

"If ye love me keep my commandments." — Jno. 14:15, 

Theeefoee, xou ought to love, accept, confess, serve him. 
Will you? 



meiKftcr's Pkage. 



As a member of the Home and Church Circle I promise to try to 
lead a consistent Christian life in my home and chnrch, as well as 
elsewhere, not only for my own benefit in Christian life and ex- 
perience, but that it may be easier for those who associate with 
me to lead this Christian life ; to try each day of my life to render 
some act of kindness to some one in the name of the Master. 



Signed, - 



Residence, 



fainilv Prayer Pleage* 



"As a parent (or a member of a home), I promise, conditions 
consistently permitting, to have daily devotions and pray- 
er in my home ; to strive to so live that those who are, or 
may be, associated with me in the home, if not already 
Christians, may be led to a knowledge, love and accept- 
ance of Jesus Christ ; and that those who are Christians 
may be led into a more devoted and holy life." 



Signed, 



Residence,- 



Cbe motfter's Privilege and Duty. 

It is the privilege and duty of the mother to mould the charac- 
ter and fix the destiny of her child. 

This nation needs nothing so much as good mothers. Mothers ! 
When you have Christianized your children you have evangelized 
the race. 

"The mother in her office, holds the key 
Of the soul ; and she it is who stamps the coin 
Of character, and makes the being who would be a savage, 
But for her gentle care, a Christian." 
"Train up a child in the way he should go." — Prov. 22:6. 
"Suffer the little children to come unto me." — Mark 10:14. 
"What manner of child shall this be?" — Luke 1 :66. 

Vour lUorK and Reward. 

If along life's pathway you— 

Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick, relieve the 
needy, comfort the sorrowing, cheer the fainting, lift the fallen, 
share a burden, dry a tear-dimmed eye, quiet a throbbing heart, 
bathe some fevered brow, soothe some sobbing child, displace 
frowns by smiles, harsh words by kind ones, dispel clouds by sun- 
shine, gloom by cheerfulness, despondensy by encouragement, and 
in every possible way bless and brighten cheer and comfort the 
lives of those about you in the name of the master. 
YOU Wllili HEAR— 

Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared 
for you.— Matt- 25:32. 



my M now? 



Break an alabaster box, be a good "Samaritan", do a good deed, 
speak a kind word, radiate some sunshine to cheer and quiet 
a throbbing heart, wipe some tear-dimmed eye, guide some erring 
soul, feed or clothe some hungry or naked one, carry some fra- 
grant flowers, dispel some clouds and gloora, encourage some des- 
pondent one, share some burden, bathe some fevered brow, lead 
some soul to Christ, 

Today— NOW— FOE tomorrow or later may be too late. 

We pass this way through the world but once. Tomorrow, you, 
or the one whom you niight cheer and comfort may be beyond all 
earthly and human aid. 

Daily $ii!!$l)ine Recipes. 

Begin each day with Christ, asking Him to guide you every 
waking moment ; forget your own troubles in helping others to 
bear theirs ; write a kindly letter to some neglected friend ; use, in 
some way, at least one personal worker card ; you may thus cheer 
and save a soul — try to lead some soul to Christ. 

Doing these things daily they become fixed liabits and your 
pathway will grow brighter each day by these shinning virtues, 
radiated from the sunshine of His love in your life. 

Thus, you will have cheered and helped three hundred 
and sixty-five souls in a year— in a lifetime ? 

— Matt.— Sermon on the Mt. 

[These personal workers' cards and pledges are protected by 
copyright and all rights are reserved.] 



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H 



WE DEDICATE THIS HOME. 



THE HOME AND CHURCH CIRCLE. 

Christian Home Dedicatory Service. 



Since it is the custom to dedicate churches and other 
places of worship to God, it certainly is as important 
ana as necessary to dedicate the home, to him, as it 
after all, is the source of the church's greatest 
strength and power. The church without the con- 
stant support and supply from a Christian home, must 
sooner or later fail; then why not increase the number 
of altars in the home and the number of homes in the 
church, by dedicating every possible home to the Lord 
and Savior ? This dedication insuring the family altar 
and devotions, at once makes of the home a church in 
miniature, in devotion, praise and worship; a little 
church in training, to augment the power of the larger 
when a number of such are gathered together for ser- 
vice. A home in the absence of the family altar, and 
devotions is not in the highest and truest sense a real 
Christian home. 

The following is a suggested order of service that 
may be used in dedicating a home, but it is allowed of 
course, that this order may be adjusted and changed to 
suit pastors, churches, families and local conditions. 
It is also suggested, that it is appropriate, for 
newly married pairs, in their beginning family 
life and house or home keeping, that they be- 
gin by this service and dedication, thus insuring felic- 
ity and happiness, that might not otherwise be a part 
of their home; or again, when persons are moving into 
a new home, or from one community to another, or 
even when remaining in the home, and even, if having 
had regular devotions in the home, it would not be 
amiss, to now formerly dedicate the home to the Mas- 
ter. Finally upon an occasion of household baptism 
would be an opportune time for the service. The ser- 
vice may include, simply the pastor and the family; or 
the immediate neighbors, relatives and friends, or the 
members of the official board of the church or even the 
membership of the church when it is small enough and 
the house is large enough: properly directed in its so- 
cial and spiritual features, it ought to be a most felicit- 
ous and happy time. 

A HOUSE BLESSING. 

"The beauty of the house is holiness; the blessing of 
the house is contentment; the joy of the house is hospi- 
tality; the crown of the house is Godliness." 



O HAPPY HOUSE I 

"O happy house ! Where man and wife in hear , 

In faith and hope are one ; 
That neither death nor life can ever part 

The union here begun. 
O happy house ! Where little ones are given 

Early to Thee in love and prayer ; 
To Thee, who from the heights of Heaven 

Guardeth them ever with most tender care !" 

ORDER OF DEDICATORY SERVICE. 

1. An appropriate hymn. 

2. Scripture reading. 
Peace be to this house. 

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. 

Zachaeus, make haste and come down, for today I 
must abide at thy house; and he made haste and came 
down, and received him joyfully; and Jesus said unto 
him, this day is Salvation come to thine house. 

Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly 
love. 

She looketh well to the ways of her household, and 
eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children rise up 
and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praiseth 
her. 

The house of the righthous shall stand forever. 

Remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy. 

Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and thy 
neighbor as thyself. 

Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord; wealth and 
riches shall be in his house. 

A good man showeth favor and lendeth. He will 
guide his affairs with discretion. 

Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord 
pitieth them that fear him. 

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath be- 
stowed upon us. 

Seek ye the kingdom of God and its righteousness; 
and all these things, shall be added unto you. 

This is my commandment, that ye love one another, 
as I have loved you. 

Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the 
days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the 
Lord forever. 

3. Hymn. 



Response by Pastor and People. 

Pastor— To thee, O God, and to thy service. 

People — We dedicate this home. 

Pastor — To thee, most blessed Savior, that thy pres- 
ence may ever abide with us, 

People — We dedicate this home. 

Pastor -To thee, most holy Spirit, that thou mayest 
comfort us and guide us in the way of all truth. 

People— We dedicate this home. 

Pastor — As a place where the dearest friendships are 
cherished. 

People — We dedicate this home. 

Pastor — As a throne where father and mother reign 
as loving souvereigns,over obedient and loving children. 

People — We dedicate this home. 

Pastor — As a place where hospitality, and kindness 
shall be found for neighbors, for strangers, and for all 
who come to its doors. 

People — We dedicate this home. 

Pastor— As a place from which sunshine and cheer 
may be radiated to all about it, 

People — We dedicate this home. 

Pastor — As a place from which shall go out sympa- 
thy, and help for those in bereavement, distress, mis- 
fortune, or sorrow of any kind, 

People — We dedicate this home. 

5. Prayer of Dedication. 

6. Song, "Home Sweet Home." 

7. Social or other features planned by the home. 

Copies of the constitution of the Home and Church 
Circle including the Dedicatory service, will be sent to 
any address in the United States for 10 cents, or the 
Dedicatory service only for 5 cents; or the Constitution 
at $1.00 a dozen; the Dedicatory Service 50 cents a doz- 
en. On sale by Burrows Bros, or S. C. Hale & Son, 
Cleveland, Ohio. 

[This service is protected by copyright, all rights re- 
reserved.] 



AUQ. U l9iM 



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